The Guardian Chronicles 2: Dark Horizon (8 page)

“Killer abs, a great smile, charming personality, and a cute butt,” Ryan offered.

“Oh really?” Elise asked.

“Hey, I’m perfectly comfortable in my sexuality and I’ll admit that, yeah he is hot.”

“He’s also arrogant, rude, cynical…”

“And yet you dated him for what, almost a year?” Ryan asked, arching an eyebrow.

“He does have good abs…and a cute butt. God, I now you’re right…do you have any idea how much I hate saying that?”

Ryan shrugged.

“So, were you really saying that?”

“Saying what?”

“That you think that there is more to him than meets the eye.”

“I think there is more to everyone than meets the eye,” Ryan shrugged. “He’s stronger than anyone knows…probably even stronger than even he knows.”

“But he’s not a Guardian,” Elise protested.

“Everyone keeps fixating on that,” Ryan growled. “Did you want me to just let him die?”

“Of course not!” Elise said, annoyance creeping into her voice. “I would never wish anyone dead, especially not like that but Ethan might have a point, what if he can’t do it.”

“How do we choose Guardians?” Ryan asked, looking intently at the fire.

“What do you mean?” Elise asked.

“Think about it,” Ryan encouraged. “Just because my father or mother was a Guardian, that doesn’t mean that I will be, right?”

“Right.” Elise nodded.

“So, how do we choose Guardians? We choose them based on their character, on their spirit, on what they are willing to do for their fellow man. I’m telling you Gabriel has that, I know it.”

Elise seemed to consider that for a moment. “And if you are wrong?”

“Guess we’ll find out,” Ryan grunted.

“How is he doing?” Elise asked.

“Confused, about like normal I suppose, I have to remember how weird it has to sound for someone to hear that things that they thought weren’t real were actually very real.”

Elise nodded. “I’m going to trust your judgment on this.”

“At least someone does.”

“Hey,” Elise said, standing and brushing the side of his face with her hand. “We all trust you, don’t forget that, ok?”

Ryan nodded. With her standing so close he could smell her perfume, a combination of vanilla and honey, sweet but not overpowering. He tried his best not to stare directly into the firelight dancing in her dark eyes and was only partially successful.

“Besides,” Elise continued, gently patting his face. “I’d love to see Ethan taken down a peg or two.”

She winked at him before heading back into the house.

Gabriel was happy that things finally calmed down at home. His parents were both completely taken aback when Ryan brought him home, which seemed to only strengthen the story that Ryan had told him. The facts were still spinning around in his head when he went upstairs and flopped down on his bed.

Was this real?

Gabriel walked to his bathroom and stripped off his shirt, examining not only his wound but the glowing tattoo as well. He shook his head, this all seemed to extraordinary. He put on clean shirt and then started to pace about his room, tapping the screen on his phone. He could hear the TV downstairs and could imagine that his parents were going over the events of the past few days…well their version of the last few days.

He wasn’t sure how he got into this mess…well, no that wasn’t true. He was sure, although he couldn’t really blame Tim for dragging him to the concert. Before he could continue that train of thought there was a knock at the door, he stopped and slipped his phone back into his pocket.

“Come in.”

The door opened and Sean poked his head in. Gabriel had to resist the urge to run to his little brother and wrap him in a big hug. As far as Sean was concerned they had been together for the last thirty six hours. He had no idea that Gabriel had been worried sick about his safety mere hours ago. Ryan had given him the rundown of the story that had been ‘suggested’ via magic to his parents and Sean and Tim.

“Dude, you should’ve seen the amount of girls that were all over me and Tim last night!”

“I didn’t?” Gabriel asked.

“Um…no,” Sean said, as his eyebrows drew together. “You spent the whole night sulking on the bench near the fire and when we came to get you to go back to Tim’s house, you said you were going to go stay at some guy’s house… someone from your school, I think that you said his name was Ryan.”

“Oh right.”

Not that it surprised Gabriel, both Tim and his brother were dynamite with the ladies, Tim even more so. He imagined that it was the same with Ethan.

“You alright?” Sean asked, flopping down on Gabriel’s bed.

“Fine,” Gabriel responded. “So, you had girls all over you? What about Kelly?”

Sean rolled his eyes. “We broke up a few hours ago, I wasn’t mature enough for her or something but Tim got a number from some wicked cute blonde. I think that she said she had a friend.”

“Wow, only broken up a few hours and already you’re looking for a new girl, you must be really upset about that,” Gabriel chuckled.

“Dude, I’m a 14 year old boy I can get over stuff pretty fast,” Sean shrugged. “And I think that we both know that Kelly wasn’t exactly my soul mate.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Gabriel, I haven’t seen this Ryan dude, so I can’t tell you if he is hot or not.”

That actually brought a rather disgusted look from Gabriel. It wasn’t that Ryan wasn’t attractive, he was, but the way that Ryan treated him at his house was more…brotherly than anything. The very thought of anything happening physically between the two of them sort of made his skin crawl. He really couldn’t explain it.

“That’s not what I meant,” Gabriel sighed.

“Oh, so this guy isn’t a possible romantic interest?”

“Damnnit Sean, it not like I want to jump every guy that I see.”

“Alright, alright,” Sean said, holding his hands to ward off what he thought was an incoming tirade. “So, what did you want to ask me?”

“If you had the chance to do something to make a difference, even if it might be dangerous, would you do it? Do you think that doing good is worth putting your life on the line?”

“You mean like joining the Marines or something?” Sean asked.

“Something like that,” Gabriel nodded.

“Are you planning on doing something stupid that I need to talk you out of?”

“No,” Gabriel snapped, the reply coming out harsher than he intended. Ever since the incident last year, every member of his family tended to get a little overprotective of him, Sean more so than anyone else.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes,” Gabriel hissed. “Now answer the question.”

“Depends on what kind of good you are talking about doing,” Sean shrugged. “I think I recall a famous quote that might help out ‘the only way to for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing’…or something like that.”

“Going all philosophical on me?”

“Just repeating something I heard,” Sean said, grabbing a magazine off Gabriel’s desk and starting to flip through it. “But yeah man, I think if you can do something good in the world then you sort of have too.”

Gabriel nodded. Sean would have no idea exactly what it was that Gabriel was talking about; he could have been talking about a bake sale for all Sean knew but he did have a point. Gabriel has been handed a great chance here to do something…to actually fight evil in the world and not just the metaphorical kind.

“I know what you did the other day at school,” Sean said, turning far more serious than his younger brother usually did. “Tim’s cousin goes to your school and he told me about how you stood up for that kid.”

“It was nothing,” Gabriel shrugged.

“No one at that school has stood up for you and you go out of your way to stand up for someone else. He also said that Ryan guy is pretty popular and not entirely a total jerk.”

“He’s actually pretty cool,” Gabriel shrugged.

“I’m glad,” Sean said. “You deserve some cool people in your life.”

Gabriel smiled at that comment.

“I’m off to bed, see ya in the morning.”

“Night.”

Gabriel watched Sean go, his thoughts drifting back to everything that Ryan had said. Maybe he was right, maybe this was a chance to do something more. He took a deep breath before fishing the cell phone out of his pocket. He scrolled through his contacts, finally locating Ryan’s name.
 He hesitated for only a brief second before pushing the dial button.

“Yo,” Ryan answered.

“I’m in,” Gabriel answered.

“Are you sure? There isn’t any turning back as soon as you start.”

“Yeah,” Gabriel sighed.

“Cool, pick you up tomorrow at seven, tell your mom you’re going to go work out with me, which actually won’t be that far from the truth.”

“Alright, see you then.”

And the line went dead. Gabriel fell into bed and wondered what he had gotten himself into it.

CHAPTER 4

The morning came entirely too early for Gabriel. He hadn’t gotten very much sleep that night, Gabriel supposed that it was a combination of nerves and excitement about what he was about to undertake. He was up at 6 a.m., showered, dressed, and waiting for Ryan shortly there afterward. Luckily, he caught his parents before they went to sleep and told them about working out with Ryan the next day.

Needless to say they were both pretty speechless. He expected a bombardment of questions but they both just beamed at him with stupid grins on their faces. He supposed they were happy that he was finally starting to make friends, although he supposed eventually he would have to deal with the questions about him and Ryan possibly being a couple.

Ryan arrived right at 7
a.m. He parked his black pickup truck in the driveway, waiting for Gabriel to come out. Gabriel waved goodbye to his mom, who was just getting up and then was out the door. He was already pretty nervous, not only because he didn’t know what this training had in store for him but also because he was going to be alone with Ryan, someone he actually wanted to get to know better.

“Good morning,” Ryan smiled, as Gabriel slid into the truck. “You ready for this?”

“Um…no,” Gabriel admitted.

“Good attitude to have.”

They backed out of the driveway and headed down the street, hard rock playing on the radio.

“Where are we headed?” Gabriel asked.

“Aegis,” Ryan responded, as they turned out of Gabriel’s addition. “It’s the company that funds the Guardians and where we get most of our technology, weapons, and other devices.”

“Wow, cool,” Gabriel said.

“You’ll also meet the rest of the team,” Ryan went on, as they merged onto the interstate and started south. “They’re pretty cool, you’ve met everyone but Elise and Marissa.”

“Are they Phoenix’s too?”

“Nope,” Ryan said. “Marissa is Wolf, like Cody and Elise is a Lion like Ethan and Everett is the only Owl we have on the team.”

“Will Ethan be there?”

“Depends,” Ryan shrugged. “Ethan is…well…I can’t really explain it. You’ll get used to him, since he’s technically not Phoenix he doesn’t have to be here for your initial training.”

Gabriel nodded. They rode in silence for a few minutes, at least until they exited the interstate and made a turn toward a heavy industrial area where Aegis was located. Gabriel had driven through that area before, although he hadn’t really paid attention to the businesses that were located there. Ryan made a few more turns before they approached a large security gate at the front of what appeared to be a massive complex. Ryan nodded to the guard, who opened the gate.

“You train here?” Gabriel asked.

“Yeah,” Ryan nodded, as they parked Ryan’s truck. “You’ll get to like it here, I promise.”

“You do realize that I don’t have any athletic talent at all, right?”

“You’ve got more than you want to let on.”

Gabriel wanted to respond to that but didn’t really have anything to say. Ryan led them both into the main building, which opened up into a spacious and luxurious looking lobby that didn’t appear to fit to the industrial area that they were currently in. Gabriel looked around, amazed at the scope of the place.

“Aegis owns all this?” Gabriel asked, as Ryan led him past the security desk. They ended up in a back hallway, headed toward what Gabriel assumed was the back of the building.

“Yeah,” Ryan nodded. “Aegis is responsible for several new advancements in military hardware, most of which we use.”

Gabriel just shook his head in amazement as they passed several offices.

“Where are we going exactly?” Gabriel asked.

“Our main facility is located underneath the research and development division, which is across the complex, right across from the administration building, which we are currently in.”

“Oh, right.”

They made their way through the rest of the building, emerging on the back end to find several golf carts. Ryan gestured for Gabriel to get in and they moved smoothly into motion, cutting across the driving paths and toward the research and development building.

“The first thing that we’ll do is take a tour,” Ryan explained. “Then we’ll get you off to the academy to get your weapon made…”

“Wait a second, weapon? Academy? What are you talking about?”

"We actually start off training in Paris, at the academy," Ryan explained, as they continued down the corridor. "Once we hit fourteen we generally get sent out to various bases. Aegis has operations all over the world, so it works well for us.”

“And weapon?” Gabriel asked. “I mean what does that entail? I can barely wield a golf club, let alone a sword.”

“Who says it will be a sword?” Ryan asked.

“Huh?” Gabriel asked, now he was really confused.

“We’ll take you to the weapons master at the academy, she’ll look you over, figure out what is the best weapon to suit you and then build it for you, she’ll makes it personal.”

Gabriel wasn’t too sure that he liked the sound of that, although he had a feeling that he was about to hear a lot of things that he wasn’t going to really like the sound of. He suppressed the urge to ask any more questions and continued to follow Ryan.

“After we get that sorted out we’ll actually start your training,” Ryan went on. “We’ll probably start off with basic conditioning training and weight training to get you in shape. After that we can move into the fun stuff. You know the gun range and Martial arts.”

“Martial arts training? Gun range?” Gabriel asked, as they slipped in another door. “I can think of at least a dozen reasons not to give me a gun.”

Ryan punched in a code to another set of elevators. “Don’t worry; the shooting thing is probably the easiest thing to get a handle on really. After that we need to start bringing you up to speed on the world that you just stepped into.”

“You mean demons, vampires, magic, and all that?” Gabriel asked. Even as he spoke the words he was still having a hard time believing that this was all real.

“Yeah,” Ryan nodded. “You’re going to have a lot of catching up to do. Really, it’s not much different than what you already know, except of course all that stuff is real now. Luckily, most stuff is pretty easy to kill when needed.”

That prospect brought Gabriel to a dead halt. He had yet to really grasp what it was that he was about to embark on, including the fact that he might be terminating the life of another being. Regardless of the evilness of that being, he wasn’t sure that he would be able to go through with such an act. Ryan must have sensed his hesitation and turned to look at him.

“Sorry about that,” he sighed. “I should have chosen my words more carefully but it’s the truth. Some of what we do isn’t pretty but it needs to be done.”

Gabriel just nodded, numbly aware that really hadn’t thought all of this through. They continued moving toward the elevator and stepped inside. A second later the car moved smoothly into motion and then opened up to the underground complex that actually held the Guardian’s main base.

“Wow,” Gabriel said, as they stepped out of the elevator.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Ryan asked.

“This place looks huge!”

“It’s a lot bigger than you would think,” Ryan explained. “Come on; let’s have a look at the training rooms first.”

Gabriel nodded and fell into step behind Ryan, passing through the brightly lit corridor. There weren’t a huge number of people milling about but it was a lot more active than Gabriel would have thought. They passed several doors, all made entirely of frosted glass before stopping in front of a large set of double doors that looked like they belonged onboard some futuristic space station.

“This is our training facility,” Ryan explained, punching in another code.

The training room looked like something right out of a comic book. It was vast, the ceiling as high as his school’s gymnasium. The entire right side of the gym had a variety of gym equipment; free weights, treadmills, stair climbers, elliptical trainers, and stationary bikes. It all looked brand new as well, like no one had ever used it, although given the way that most of the Guardians he had met looked, he found that hard to believe.

The other side the gym held a vast array of what looked like sparring areas. The mats, like the rest of the stuff in the training room looked like it was brand new. Again, Gabriel had a hard time believing that and assumed that the Guardians just took really good care of their stuff. He was surprised to see Cody and Tony in a ring. Both were holding short swords, though unlike the rest of the stuff in the gym, these looked like they had seen a great deal of wear and tear.

“What are they doing?” Gabriel asked, as they approached the ring.

“Sparring,” Ryan smiled.

Even as he spoke the two of them leapt into action again, coming at each other at what seemed like a furious pace. The speed and fluidity of their attacks and parries was mind boggling, making the match look like something out of a movie and not real life.

“Still too slow,” Cody grunted, dodging another blow. Tony struck back with renewed vigor, launching into an assault that included a series of kicks as well as sword strikes. But Cody moved to counter each one, pushing them aside or blocking them all together.

“Maybe I’m just warming up,” Tony responded.

“I would have thought that you'd be warmed up by now,” Cody responded, he back flipped away from Tony.

That only seemed to up the ante and Tony was striking back harder than he had before, driving Cody toward the edge of the training ring. Cody vaulted over Tony, slamming the pommel of his sword into Tony’s back as he land, pitching him forward. Tony recovered, whirling around and nearly taking Cody’s head off.

“They’re gonna kill each other,” Gabriel yelped.

“Nah,” Ryan responded. “Actually, I think that Tony is about to win.”

“What?”

Gabriel wasn’t entirely sure what Ryan meant by that, mainly because he couldn’t see that either person was even close to making a mistake. Cody faked to the left and then was knocked completely off balanced by a snap kick to the chest. He faltered slightly, which was all the opening that Tony needed. He exploded into action, slamming into Cody with a series of precise blows that disarmed him in a matter of seconds.

“Damn it,” Cody cursed, breathing heavy. “How is that you do that every single time?”

“Because I’m that good,” Tony smiled.

Cody rolled his eyes, grabbing a towel and wiping off his face. “Still beat your butt on the ranged course though.”

Tony shrugged, appearing not to offer any resistance to that comment. It was commonly known that Cody was probably the best shot of out all the Guardians at this division of Aegis. They both turned to look at Gabriel and Ryan, who were standing at the edge of the ring.

“Hey, nice to see you again,” Tony said, stepping out of the ring. “Decide to finally take a walk on the wild side?”

“Um…yeah I guess so,” Gabriel shrugged. “Weren’t you afraid that you were going to hurt him? I mean you were both moving so fast.”

“Pft,” Cody said, with a wave of his hand. “I’m not that slow.”

“We train hard so that we can fight hard,” Tony explained, as they started to walk toward the other end of the gym. “I was in control the whole time; if I wanted to hurt him I could have just like if he wanted to hurt me he could have.”

“But it was so fast,” Gabriel said, shaking his head. “It didn’t seem humanly possible.”

“Because we aren’t entirely human,” Ryan smiled. “The Rite changes us; like you said before. We’re better than human, faster, stronger, more agile all the things you would need to take on the bad guys.”

Gabriel was really starting to think that he made a mistake in deciding to join. There was no way that he would ever be able to even handle a sword let alone move as fast and with such grace as either Cody or Tony had just displayed. He was getting more and more anxious that he would be nothing but a disappointment to his new-found friends.

“You learn to be that fast,” Ryan added. “We’ve been training since we were old enough to walk, its second nature to us.”

“I doubt that I will ever be that fast,” Gabriel grunted. “I can barely handle walking, let alone twirling around swords and whatnot.”

“I wasn’t twirling,” Tony frowned. “It was called striking, parrying maybe, but not twirling.”

“There was some twirling going on,” Ryan admitted. “For most of your training you’ll be with either me or Tony, we’re both Phoenix, so it’s up to us to bring you up to speed.”

“I think you are being punished for something.”

They all turned to see Ethan standing there. Again, Gabriel had to stop himself from staring like an idiot. Ethan looked like he had just finished his own workout, his face was flushed and he looked to be a sweaty mess…but even in that condition Gabriel still felt attracted to him.

Maybe it was his arms, which were tanned and muscular. Or maybe it was his unwavering confidence in himself or perhaps it was his eyes, which seemed to display a combination of both mischievousness and danger.

And it was then that he noticed the same glowing lines, although this time blue in color that seemed to flow out and around his shoulders. Gabriel couldn’t see much, he suspected that most of his tattoo was on Ethan’s back, unlike the one that he was now sporting. The addition of the tattoo added another layer of attraction to Ethan.