Guardian's Patience, page 27
part #5 of Guardians of the Race Series
“It wasn’t funny at the time,” Pinkie protested as the others started to laugh. “I was scared shitless.”
“No, Patience.” Broadbent hugged her shoulders, but he was smiling, too. “You were thinking. You were smart. You rolled out of harm’s way.”
“Are you going to finish this story or leave it hanging there,” Dov asked. He was the only one who wasn’t laughing.
“Aw jeez.” Col shook his head in disgust. “Everybody knows how it ends.”
“I don’t, and I really want to know.”
“So do I,” Grace laughed and wiped her eyes, “I’m sorry, sweetie, I shouldn’t laugh, but I do get it. I didn’t learn to drive until I came here.”
“Don’t let her kid you.” This from the laughing Hope. “She still hasn’t learned.”
The laughter was a welcome relief. If the beginning of her stay in the Otherworld had been the worst, the end had been the most frightening.
“So? How did you escape?” Dov was rolling his hand in a forward circle, urging her to continue.
“There isn’t much, Dov. I was so scared by then I didn’t know what I was doing. Madam still had the knife. I scrambled to my feet and dodged. Several times. The only thing I had going for me was that I was younger and faster. And all the time, I’m holding that ball of energy. I didn’t know how to get rid of it without blowing myself up with it. You have to make one before you can learn to unmake it.
“Someone opened the door to the outside. I still don’t know who. I just saw the open door. I almost bowled that demon over. He snarled and shouted. On the outside, other demons were staring at me. I still had that ball of energy in my hand. It was pretty conspicuous and I had to get rid of it, so I tossed it over my shoulder and through the open door and I took off.
“There was a huge explosion behind me, but I wasn’t thinking about where it came from. I was running down alley after alley with no place to go. I’d been held prisoner at Madam’s for years and Abyar usually made me keep my head down when he took me out on a job. I was in full panic mode. What saved me was that everyone else was, too.”
Pinkie’s breath was coming fast as if she’d been running through her memory. With her hand to her chest, she sat back in her chair.
“The thing about energy balls is that they don’t explode until they hit something. Once they do, they always try to come back to their source,” she said in a much slower and quieter voice. “I didn’t know that then, and even if I did, I didn’t know how to catch it, just like I didn’t know how to unmake it. That energy ball blew up two more buildings before shooting over my head and into the blackness.
The occupants at the table were howling with laughter and Pinkie found herself smiling, too. All these years later the story looked different.
“I saw that thing coming my way and I ducked for cover under a bench. Something landed with a thud beside me. Madam’s crystal ball had flown six streets over. I took it as a sign and I grabbed it. When I ducked around the corner, I was in front of the last house Abyar had taken me to. No one was there and the door was wide open. The mirror was just where we left it. I came out in a backyard shed in Houston.”
Pinkie looked up at her hero and smiled, “So you see, Pookie, I’m not very brave. I’m just lucky.”
Broadbent kissed her on the tip of her nose. “I think you’re wonderful.”
“There’s something else I realized,” she said as the assembly was getting up to leave, “and I wonder why I couldn’t see it then. I didn’t need that energy ball. I knew almost everything that Madam knew. She wanted my power because I had more of it than she did. I could have snapped her like a twig. Why didn’t I?”
Manon patted her shoulder affectionately. “You were frightened and you were a child. How wonderful that you are now a woman and a Daughter of Man.”
Chapter 26
Andi ran the rag under the kitchen faucet. She wrung it out, watched the bottom of the sink turn red, and rinsed it again.
“I’ve had it,” she said. “I’m done, done, done. I’ve worked my fingers to the bone trying to give us a decent place to live and nobody appreciates it except you, Poynter.”
Poynter watched the bloody water spiral down the drain and licked his lips.
“I turned that cellar into perfectly adequate living quarters for the minions. I even cleaned out the old coal room to give them a quiet place to feed, but does Abyar make them use it? No. He gives them full run of the place and now there’s blood all over that nice living room furniture. If I’d known he was going to let them ruin it, I would have left it behind with the chair you left the house sitter in.” She smiled at the demon’s blank face. “You really should have moved her to the kitchen before you ate. If you’re going to live in this world, you need to learn some manners.”
Rag clean, Andi went back to the living room. “Where is the old bastard, anyway?” she asked Poynter, who’d followed behind her.
He always followed behind her, everywhere she went, and this dogged devotion was becoming annoying. He only left her to feed, which was why she wasn’t too upset about ruining that beautiful chair. It gave her time to see what valuables might be hidden in the master bedroom. She’d hit the jackpot with a menstrual pad box filled with cash and jewelry. By its placement on the shelf, Andi didn’t think the loot was hidden from intruders so much as from the woman’s husband.
It was comforting to know she wasn’t the only one keeping secrets from her man. The loot was currently at the bottom of the soap powder box next to the washer; another place no man would look.
“They ignore what I say and he looks the other way. He gives them vague orders and doesn’t follow through to see that they’re obeyed. Just look at tonight. Find money and get yourself something to eat, he says. Did he tell them not to bring dinner home? Is he here to see what kind of cash they brought in? We can’t go on like this any longer, Poynter. We’re going to get caught.”
Andi looked around the room at the stained furniture and carpet. They’d have to be replaced, but she’d be damned if she’d do it while Abyar was in charge.
“I’m going upstairs to change and then you and I can take a little ride. We’ll do one more drive-by and then we’ll present the plan to Abyar. Between what your human snitches have given us and what we’ve figured out, I think we’re ready to roll.”
Poynter nodded and finally smiled. It was what his Master had been waiting to hear.
~*~
“A bush jacket won’t protect your chest.”
“But a breast plate would be rather conspicuous, don’t you think?” Broadbent leaned down to be closer to Pinkie’s face. “And all that shiny metal wouldn’t go well with the jacket.”
Pinkie refused to be amused. “I’m talking modern bullet proof, not Medieval.”
“Bullets are not a concern. Demons, I’m afraid, aren’t terribly adept at firearms. Pulling a trigger with a three clawed hand is awkward to say the least.”
He didn’t mention that demon claws shredded those vests as easily as they did leather. When he saw her face cloud over, the tall Guardian relented.
“I’m touched, little dove, but your fretfulness is unwarranted. This is my calling and I am well trained. The Guardians have been doing this for a long time. They know what precautions to take and what weapons will get the job done. I’m well equipped.” He patted the large pockets of the jacket that sagged with the weight of his equipment. “It’s my job.”
“No, your job is to go out with a partner and fight one or two at a time. Nardo says there could be a dozen or more.”
“And there are six of us. The odds are the same.”
She hated his logic and was tempted to point out that she’d seen the results of what demons could do and the thought of seeing him again like that terrified her.
“Promise me you’ll be careful,” she said when he kissed her goodbye.
“You know me, dull as dust and by the book. Everything will be alright.”
But when she tugged his hand to kiss him one more time, she had an awful feeling that something wasn’t right. The old feeling of impending doom was niggling at her spine.
When she voiced her fears, she got no sympathy from Grace.
“We all feel it every time they go out. We’ve all seen the damage demon claws and teeth can do. We’ve had a few close calls and if we talk about it with our mates, we don’t do it when they’re on the way out the door.” Grace spoke with the authority of the Liege Lord’s Lady. “And we try not to think about it while they’re gone. It’s not a job they can quit, Pinkie. They’re called from birth. And your job is to support that calling.”
Pinkie had never seen her relationship with Broadbent as a job, but she did see Grace’s point. He had enough to worry about while he was out there. He didn’t need to take her fears with him.
“Come on,” Grace said in a gentler tone, “The best thing to do is keep busy. You have a mating to take care of and Manon is itching to make your dress.”
~*~
“How many times we gonna drive around this fucking block,” Poynter asked.
“As many times as we need to make sure they aren’t coming back. This is what we’ve been waiting for.” And what they would have had days ago if Abyar hadn’t decided to keep her confined to the house during daylight hours.
Andi was almost bouncing in her seat. She couldn’t believe their luck. After days of unsuccessful attempts to get information on the lay of the land behind the houses, the opportunity had fallen into their laps. While stopping at the sign on the corner of Hayden and Park, a dark SUV pulled out of the alley.
“Go. Go,” Andi urged the hesitant Poynter.
His obedience forced the second SUV to stop to allow their car the right of way which also allowed Andi to see the motorcycle come up out of the ground beneath the grey house. It was them. It had to be them.
Instead of following the lead vehicle when it turned, Andi directed Poynter up to the next block. They turned and turned again, and came to a stoplight just as the Guardian vehicles passed through. They couldn’t see through the windows of the SUVs, but the motorcycle riders were clear in the headlights.
“Where do you think they’re going?”
Andi wondered that, too. “It’s not work,” she concluded. “That was a woman on the back of the bike. I’ll bet they took the night off, a little rest and relaxation back at the old homestead.”
“How you figure?”
Andi rolled her eyes at his ignorance, though before being banished to the Otherworld, she hadn’t even known creatures like the Guardians existed. “Guardians like to play with human women, but unlike you guys, they don’t keep them or eat them. Also unlike you guys, they hate witches.”
“Why would they hate witches?”
The upper ranks of the Otherworld were full of rumors about the Paenitentia warriors who’d fucked up most of their attempts to invade this one. The education she received was one of the few perks of being pimped out to pay Abyar’s debts. Since she wasn’t there to ask questions, the only thing she’d learned was the hatred started eons ago.
“How the hell would I know?” Knowing Poynter’s pride in his own disproportionately large package, she snickered. “Maybe they have tiny little dicks and the witches laughed at them for it.”
Poynter gave a rare bark of laughter as his thoughts slid elsewhere. He didn’t question how she knew this stuff when no one had ever told him. She didn’t have to tell him there were lots of things lesser demons didn’t know. If they did, they might not be so eager to follow demons like Abyar into this world where the profits would be his and their deaths would mean nothing more than the cost of doing business.
Distracted from his own fate, Poynter turned to that of another. “What about Abyar’s witch? What did that Guardian want with her?”
“They’re using her, just like Abyar will use her.” Just like he used me, she thought, but didn’t say aloud; just like she would use Poynter.
It was something both worlds had in common. Both revolved around who was using who.
“Let’s drive a couple of more times around that fucking block, Poynter, and then we’ll take a look at that alley.”
~*~
Nardo and JJ peeled off from the convoy and headed to another section of town. They were going to blow something up. They’d used this ploy before to distract the police from their real target. Last time, it had been a warehouse containing a portal to the Otherworld and the blast was heard all over town. This time, it was nothing so spectacular. They were going to take down a building that was scheduled for demolition anyway.
It was a six story brick apartment building so riddled with rot even the street people and druggies had abandoned it. Col was the one who suggested it. He’d seen a segment about it on the local news. JJ remembered it from her time on the police force.
“The city and the owner have been fighting over it for years. The place is a death trap and no good to anyone, but the owner wants the city to pay him more than it’s worth. We’d be doing them both a favor. The owner gets to collect his insurance and the city doesn’t have to pay to take it down.”
The charges were already set and all JJ had to do was use her blue fire to set them off. Nardo refused to let her go alone.
“The Neanderthal thinks the building might collapse while I’m in there,” JJ laughed to the others, before they’d taken off. “And being a mere female, and human at that, I wouldn’t have sense enough to get out of the way.”
“I think you have sense enough to get out of the way, JJ. That’s why I volunteered to go with ya.” Dov wiggled his eyebrows at her. “So when you got out, I could throw you back in.”
Nardo didn’t think it was funny. “That building is unstable as it is. If it starts to go while you’re in there, you won’t be fast enough to get out.”
“Wanna bet?”
“No, which is why I’m going with you.”
Canaan settled it. “JJ, you’re with Nardo. Nobody’s going anywhere alone. Nardo, stay out of her way and let her do the damn job. You’ve got twenty-five minutes to get in, get out, and get over to the target. As soon as we see you turn the corner, we move. Nardo, you hit the door. JJ, you stay outside. You get the front and sides of the building. Anything that comes out the windows gets zapped.”
“Unless it’s young and good looking. Then it’s me,” Dov told her and at Canaan’s snarl added, “It wouldn’t be the first time I got my ass tossed out a window and I don’t wanna get it zapped if it happens again.”
“He falls out another window, you zap his ass. Twice. Now go,” Canaan said to the mated pair and when they were gone he turned to the others. He went over what they all had gone over a dozen times. “Broadbent, you’re on the back door. I’ll give you two minutes before I hit the front.”
Broadbent said what he’d never said before. “That won’t be necessary, my Lord. When it comes to locks, I believe I may be faster than you.”
“I believe he’s correct, my Lord.” Col had no idea how much he sounded like Broadbent. “When he does his demonstrations for the students, he’s more than capable. He’s amazing.”
“Did I say he wasn’t?” Canaan put his hand on Col’s shoulder. “Broadbent ad Sebastian never would have received his skull and tears if he wasn’t capable. That decision and honor came from a higher power than mine. We all know what he’s made of. We’ve just been waiting for him to come to the same conclusion.”
With a nod to Broadbent, he went on. “Nico, Dov, you’re with Broadbent. Col, with me. Nardo will bring up the rear.”
~*~
Pinkie fidgeted, turned toward the door, shuffled her feet and turned back. She stood still on the top of the coffee table for a full minute before she turned toward the door again. A sharp crack on her leg had her teetering mid-turn.
“Hey! Be careful, old woman, I’m the one who makes your tea.” It wasn’t meant as a threat and Manon knew it.
“What good is my tea if you drive me to distraction with your wiggle and squirm?”
Hope snickered a little, but she too, had her eye on the door. She was supposed to be passing pins as Manon reached for them, but Alice burbled and cooed. The pins were set aside and the baby taken from her seat. Hope held the child to her shoulder and rocked from side to side. She closed her eyes and sang something soft and lilting.
Pinkie stood still. Manon stopped her pinning. Grace lazily stroked Sebastian’s silky hair as he finished his meal at her breast. Hope had a lovely voice and they listened until the song was done.
Alice burped and the women laughed. Spell broken, Manon let out an exasperated sigh while Hope returned the baby to her carrier.
“This gown will never be finished and I have others to sew. Do you wish his mother to see you mated in rags?”
“We don’t even know if they’re coming, Manon. Broadbent hasn’t heard a word one way or the other.” Pinkie tilted her head to the side to give Manon more room to pin the shoulder.
“It is best to be prepared, non?” Manon reached for another pin, but none was waiting.
Hope had the baby in her arms again. “She sounded unhappy,” she answered Manon’s accusing glare.
Manon pointed to Pinkie. “This one won’t stand still and this one,” she pointed to Hope, “won’t do what she’s told. And you,” the accusing finger moved to Grace, “make such beautiful babies that no one can resist their charms.” Manon threw up her hands. “And none of you have any sense of time. They will not be back for hours. First they must kill the demons, then they must clean up their mess, then they will laugh, then they will drink, and then they will come home.” She gave them all that certain look and winked. “And then they will celebrate again.”
“Okay, okay,” Grace laughed, “How about I take the babies to visit Otto, while you finish fitting your pattern.”
“Good. The poor man is feeling useless since they let JJ take his place.”
