Bound by Revenge (Guardian Series) (17 page)

“Fine. I’m in. We’re here already, anyway. We might as well get the credit.” The passenger said as they walked up to the side walk and pressed the button on the don’t walk sign.

“I guess this means you’re in, too.” The driver eyed the third one while they waited for the light to turn.

“Eh, whatever. It’s all the same to me.” He shrugged and walked across the street, giving up on waiting for the light box to show them the image of the little man walking in bright white. The others followed closely behind, jogging across as a row of cars approached quickly from the light down the street that just turned green.

“For someone who doesn’t care, you seem pretty eager to get
us
killed in the process.” The driver said as he punched the third leanthan, a quick jab in the shoulder.

“You should be thanking me. It’s not too smart to stand around on the street before going off to commit a mass murder. The more people who see us hanging around outside the building, the more likely we’ll get caught before we ever get out of here. You may want to go to jail but I don’t.” He stared the driver straight in the eyes and returned the jab with twice the force.

“Are we doing this or what?” The third leanthan cackled taking the lead and heading up to the library.

“Fucker, this is my thing. Don’t you dare try to take over. You work for me. Remember that.” The driver pushed him away.

One of my rare mistakes
, Morgan thought to herself as she sat behind the wheel of Eric’s Escalade. It was too late to do anything about it. She was going to just have to let them destroy each other so it wouldn’t fall back on her.

The animals couldn’t be less subtle. They were right in front of the library. Where she was supposed to have an important victory, instead, like a bunch of rowdy teenagers, the leanthans faced each other, pushing, punching, yelling, and drawing a crowd of humans.

They didn’t even seem to notice. All they saw was each other. Morgan had trouble hearing the exact words over the crowd of humans chanting “Fight, fight, fight”. But a few things broke through.

“They’re fighting to become alpha male?” Morgan actually spoke out loud she was so shocked. “These useless nothings of leanthans think that any of them have a shot like that.” She shook her head in disgust.

This kind of thing happened a lot among humans. It must be the human genes inside the creatures that caused them to break ranks and fight each other instead of going after their targets. Demons were better than that. While there was a constant struggle for supremacy among their kind, they would never have turned on each other before accomplishing their goal. Any good demon would take care of the target, and then kill off the others to claim glory all to themselves. In fact, that was what Morgan was hoping for in sending in the three of them. It was a task easy enough to accomplish for a single body but she liked the idea of slowly breaking down the leanthans until they relied on her for just about everything.

The leanthans weren’t even that skilled at fighting each other. Morgan was glad that she hadn’t wasted any better soldiers by sending them in on this unnecessary mission. The only one who showed any aptitude for battle was the one she hadn’t even noticed in the car. He hadn’t spoken when she delivered the assignment. He was a stealth soldier. Usually that was the most effective kind. That’s why she tended to favor more covert means of war than outright attacks. In fact, this was supposed to be a very basic stealth maneuver. Oops.

It was that soldier, the one who seemed so stealthy in the car, that pulled out his gun first. She couldn’t see the move over the crowd but there was no denying what had happened. The previously rowdy assembly of humans suddenly froze. There was no more movement and no more sound. It was the panicked pose often held by deer in the face of an automobile but now held by probably thirty pedestrians.

And she knew the moment the others drew their weapons as well. Some female in the group screamed. It was a shrill noise that pierced through Morgan’s ear. It caused chills to run down her body like scratched slate. And then the humans, ever in a herd, began to run. Trampling the smaller ones as they scattered. All desperate to get away from the maniacs and save themselves.

At least I’m gonna get a little quality entertainment out of this
, Morgan thought, wishing she had brought some popcorn with her for the show.

There were at least three humans dead at this point; she counted them as she listened for their hearts to stop. Still the leanthans stood facing each other, not a single one making a move since the guns were drawn. “Mother fuckers, get on with it.” She screamed, knowing none of them could hear her from the car.

Their time was running short; everyone had already evacuated the library out through the back door. So there would be no slaughter happening inside, even if one of the leanthans got his head in the game and made it into the building. But the biggest problem was the sound of sirens in the distant, getting progressively louder.

The police were coming. And the immortals knew never to get caught by the police. They would expose everything if they did. The demons and angels were basically identical to humans but the leanthans were another story entirely. Just one look, just one mug shot would be enough to show the world what there really was. And in the internet age, it would only take a couple of seconds for the pictures to make it into every living room in the country.

“Shit, shit, shit. I can’t believe I’m getting dragged into something like this.” Morgan cursed as she dragged herself out of her car and kept in the shadows as she approached the library.

If they didn’t take each other out soon, the police were gonna come and bring them to jail. If they died, on the other hand, there were immortals working at the morgue that were prepared to do the autopsy and keep the findings to themselves. Many leanthan went into the morgue every year and none had been discovered by the masses.

So Morgan only had one choice. She’d kill all three of them, if they refused to do the job themselves.

The first shot stopped her for just a second, until she realized that the driver was only bleeding from the leg. “So help us all if you think that kind of aim will do you any good.” She breathed out before continuing forward.

The second shot was more effective, the smart ass from the passenger’s seat was down, bleeding on the stone. “Lucky for us these idiots take after the humans and bleed red.” She sang to herself quietly, finding some enjoyment that at least one of them was gone. The police sirens were practically on top of them now. She could see the cars squealing down the road. No more time to play around, she flashed herself to a spot inside the library, on the first floor positioned at a small window, cracked open about an inch at the bottom.

As the driver took aim, she positioned her gun through the crack. As the leanthan pulled the trigger, she used her power to guide the bullet straight through the other one’s heart while simultaneously shooting her own gun and killing the first. Now all three of them were dead, bleeding in a heap on the doorstep of the library.

Just in time
, Morgan thought and giggled to herself as she watched the police surround the building. As much as she wanted to watch the humans try to clean up this mess, she had other things she had to take care of. Since this particular mission ended so poorly, she’d have to put a little extra effort in attacking the guardians head on. 

Chapter
Eleven

Deanna, Leus’s only daughter, sat quietly in the black Chevy van, waiting. She could see Ruthers High School clearly from the curbside spot she chose but it was far enough down the block that no one would notice its presence. At the very least they wouldn’t associate it with the school.

“You need to get out there, before he leaves.” Aron half-heartedly shoved his sister toward the passenger seat door.

While Deanna bore a striking resemblance to her beautiful mother, in both stature and coloring, her personality was a direct reflection of her father’s.

“One more word out of you and I’ll let you figure out how to gain the boy’s trust yourself. And I’m just not sure he’ll be that attracted to you.” She snapped and smirked at her brother, knowing that she had the upper hand. “Someone’ll notice if I’m hanging around on the steps before school lets out. We need to wait until other people start showing up.”

When Arratta approached her about this, Deanna had jumped at the chance. Since her mother died, she had been looking for a way to get revenge. And now, for the first time, it actually seemed possible. Just thinking that her grandfather trusted her with something so important made her heart both swell and ache at the same time.

Deanna appeared to be about 18 years old. Trim and tall, spectacularly statuesque. She was the perfect choice to collect the teenage boy. What hormonal teen could resist her charm? She just hoped that was the case here, now that she had so much riding on the boy’s attention.

She watched, her fingers drumming on the center console, as cars and buses slowly streamed down the road to collect students. Some parked along the street in front of the school, others drove past before they pulled into the large parking lot that held most of the students’ and teachers’ vehicles.

She took one more moment to study the picture that Arratta had given her to help identify the correct boy. Tom Andrean was the son of mogul businessman, Bradley Andrean. And apparently, the youngest child in a family of guardians.

Guardians were supposedly untouchable. They weren’t good, they weren’t evil. They just were. And unlike angels and demons, they weren’t ruled by anyone and they had no rules among themselves. To most immortals, the legends of the guardians gave them hope of a future with the freedom of humanity and all the benefits of immortality. But when Arratta’s new partner, Morgan revealed that the guardians were protecting the humans who killed her mother, they became her enemies. Same as if they had wielded the weapons themselves.

“Wish me luck.” Deanna opened the door and stepped down onto the sidewalk. She put on a pair of Ralph Lauren aviators to cover her eyes. She adjusted her pink cabled v-neck sweater and flattened her hands down the front of her tight black jeans to make sure the time she’d spent in the van didn’t detract from the way she was going to present herself to Tom.

“Just bring him back so we can get on with this.” Aron snipped and a line of drool escaped down the side of his mouth. “I don’t know why you’re out there fussing with yourself.”

Deanna knew how crazy it made him, having to sit back and wait while someone else got to have the good assignment. Especially since that someone happened to be his baby sister. But that didn’t give him the right to behave like such an ass. She was gonna do this her way, no matter how much he tried to intimidate her.

Tom walked out of the four story brick building. He was relieved to finally get out for the day. Next to him, his friend Trevor went on about the history assignment, ranting about how pissed he was that he’d have to spend the whole weekend researching a paper instead of going to the big party down at the lake.

Tom didn’t worry too much about it. History had always come easy to him and even if it didn’t, what did he care. One bad grade in his senior year wouldn’t be enough to destroy his future. He already had a guaranteed job, anyway. College was just for kicks. It was just something he had agreed to do to appease his father. There would be no four year university in his future. He couldn’t stand the idea of being in school that much longer. A couple of years at the community college in town was the most he was willing to budge.

“Tom! Over here.” The melodic voice drew Tom out of his thoughts and stopped him and Trevor dead in their tracks. They glanced over and gaped at the most beautiful girl they’d ever seen.

As she jogged over to them, Tom’s messenger bag slipped off his shoulder onto the ground. He quickly scooped it back up and tried to collect himself, embarrassed that he was so clumsy in front of such a knock-out.

“Don’t you remember me?” She asked, feigning insult while the boys continued to stare. She shook her head slowly and clicked her tongue three times.

“Deanna. I was here last summer visiting family. We met at a party. You seriously don’t remember me?” Deanna struggled to sound like a teenage girl. The whiny edge to her voice wasn’t natural but she seemed to pull it off.