Bound by Revenge (Guardian Series) (30 page)

Let ‘em kill each other off if that’s what they wanted to do
, he thought.
What difference does it make to me?
He still didn’t know what any of this was really about. He just knew he wasn’t ready to go back and face Arratta, or to see if Morgan survived. He hoped she did, because he wanted the opportunity to kill her with his own two hands.

“Since it came up, you wanna tell us why we brought him home with us?” Abby looked towards Sam, and held her breathe.

“Sure. He’s joining us.” Sam said as matter of fact as she could.

The gasp in the room was deafening. But out of the whole group, it was Leus whose face was frozen in shock.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Abby sputtered. “He tried to kill me.”

“No, he tried to save his family.” Sam started. “He’s not a bad guy. He couldn’t be or he wouldn’t become a guardian. And I saw it myself. I saw this. Him turning in front of us all.”

“Fine, then go ahead.” Abby motioned to Leus and waited for him to change. She gave him about a minute before she faced Sam again. “Nothing’s happening. You’ve gotta be wrong.”

“I’m never wrong.” Sam yawned the words.

A playful look glimmered in Abby’s eyes before she sauntered over to Leus, pulled the book from his hands and set it down on the end table next to him.

“What do you have to say about all this?” She asked him, quietly.

“I don’t know anything about it.” He stared her down as they stood face to face.

Abby held her hand out behind her, only to bring it back to Leus after Alex returned her knife. She placed the point up to the soft skin right under his ear.

“Go ahead. You have the choice. Either you join us or you die.” The point dug into Leus’ neck when she spoke and enticed a stream of blood from his neck.

“Only the leader can assemble a team.” Sam shook her head at Abby. “You know that as well as I do. We need to wait for your father to come back.”

“I was just having a little fun with him.” She pulled the blade across his neck just hard enough to scratch his top layer of skin. As she moved the blade away, Leus doubled over in pain.

Everyone watched as the symbol imbedded itself on Leus neck, marking him as one of their own.

“How is that possible?” Abby gasped.

Something had happened. It had to have. Abby was their new leader. The role had passed down to the second generation guardian.

Tears fell from Abby’s eyes before she even realized she was crying. There was no other explanation. Her father had told them the only person who could change someone was a lead guardian. It was just one of many facts about the guardians they had gone over that day. It didn’t seem important at the time. But now, it was the only thing that Abby could think about.

Sobs escaped from her lips and warmth emanated from her chest.

“Abby, something’s happening.” Sam shook Abby’s shoulders dragging her out of her spiral of grief.

“You’re necklace. Abby. Look at your necklace.” Sam lifted the stone up, bringing it into Abby’s line of sight.

The stone was glowing, an eerie light, unlike anything she’d ever seen. The stone was the source of the warmth that she felt. Abby took the gem between her fingers, examining it through her tears.

She rolled the hot orb in her hand, taking comfort in the contrast between the smooth sides and the facets of the stone. That simple action was the key. Right in front of her stood a translucent image of her father.

“Are you a ghost?” She asked. Nothing would surprise her at this point. If there were angels and demons it only made sense that there’d be ghosts, too. And if she couldn’t have her father alive, she’d happily take him as a spirit. That way she wouldn’t have to let him go like she’d had to do with her mother.

“No, I’m something else.” He said, reaching out to touch Abby’s arm.

She couldn’t feel the warmth that she expected from his touch. It was more like a cool breeze passing over her skin.

“Will you stay with us?” Abby could barely control her legs, as she looked into her father’s face.

“I can’t do that, pumpkin. I just came make sure you take control of your destiny. It’s up to you to save the humans. And take care of your family.” Bradley tried to get past the pain he saw in his daughter’s eyes.

“You’re going to need everyone in this room. You can trust them all. Even the leanthan.” He motioned to Leus with his hand as he spoke.

“I can’t do this without you.” Abby choked, falling to her knees.

“You can do anything, Abigail. But I’ll always be with you. And if you ever truly need me you can summon me through your talisman. It was given to the guardians by the creators when they sent us to save humanity. It can do amazing things. But you can’t abuse its power. Only use it if you must.” Bradley leaned down to kiss his daughter on the cheek. Then he turned to face the others.

“I’m sorry Tom. I never meant for you to get hurt. I love you more than you’ll ever know. And Alex. You’ve always been my second in command. You’re in charge of the business. It’s a big responsibility but I trust you can handle it. I love you both.” With that Bradley flickered out like a fluorescent light and disappeared without a trace.

Abby fell to the floor, shaking uncontrollably in her grief.

Rage filled the boys and masked any trace of sorrow.

“Did you kill him?” Tom was the first to his feet and to Leus’ side.

“I never touched the man.” He spoke clearly, while looking Tom in the eyes.

“You heard it yourself. You can trust me. I’m damn sure that if I killed him, he wouldn’t tell you that.”

“Well, do you know who did this?” Tom faltered as the thought about it.

“If I had to guess, I’d put my money on Morgan.” Leus shrugged. “She was the last one to show up at the warehouse. She said that she had to attend to some last minute business before she came to wait for you. That ‘business’ was probably your father.”

“He was going to save me.” Tom suddenly realized. “He died, trying to save me.”

Tom stumbled backwards and fell to a seat on the couch when the back of his knees made contact. “I can’t wait to join. I need to become a guardian now. I have to do this for him.”

Abby looked up just long enough to nod an acknowledgement to her baby brother.

That was enough. Her agreement sealed his fate. The marking took root on the back of his neck as quickly as it had on Leus. Tom didn’t move or make a sound as his body was branded as a guardian’s because his whole body was numb from anger and guilt.

Chapter Twenty-two

Vance looked like an angel while he slept. Strange thought considering his origins. Sam stood in the doorway and braced herself on the door jamb while she watched Vance. He lay still in the bed. No tossing or turning. The only indication of his injury was the sweat beading on his forehead and down his chest.

She hoped his restful sleep was a good sign. A chance for his body to heal from the wound. Immortals rarely got a wound that lasted more than a day but this one would take longer than that to heal. At least a week, Sam guessed, and that was if it healed at all.

How could she keep going without him? She knew she couldn’t do it. They had waited so long to be together. She wouldn’t let that happen.

Her mind filled with thoughts of a future alone and a future with Vance. The latter was far preferable.

A motion on the bed caught Sam’s attention, drawing her out of her thoughts. He wasn’t awake yet, but he would be soon.

Sam walked into the bathroom and grabbed a plush white washcloth. She waited until the water in the sink warmed to the perfect temperature. It was still a little cold, but not icy enough to shock him, then drenched the terrycloth and wrung it out in the sink.

When she stepped back into her bedroom, Vance was stirring even more. The blankets were tangled around his legs and his brow was drenched in the sweat that had just speckled it before.

She wanted to crawl into the bed. To comfort him with her body and with her soothing words. But she knew that right now he needed to be nursed back to health.

She brought the chilled cloth up to his face and wiped the sweat off lovingly. Then moving the cloth down over his neck and chest to help cool down his core temperature.

Vance started in the bed, opened his eyes in a panic and grabbed Sam’s throat.

“It’s me. Sam.” She could barely get the words out through her blocked airway.

Vance let go as soon as he saw who she was and knew that he wasn’t in danger.

“I’m so sorry.” He said, grabbing her hand and holding it tight to his chest.

Sam laughed it off. She would have done the same thing if she was the one lying on the bed. Vulnerable to the world around her. She was just glad that he wasn’t at his full strength. He could have done a lot more damage than the momentary discomfort she felt.

“How are you feeling?” She asked, unbandaging the wound to see if there was any progress in the healing.

“A little like I got hit by a bus. But otherwise, I’m great.” Vance’s sarcasm didn’t escape her and she smirked at him before looking down at the wound again.

“You’re starting to heal. You’ve got a little ways to go though. I think you’re gonna be bedridden for a couple more days.”

“Great. That’s exactly what I need when the world’s at risk of basically imploding around us.”

“Do you enjoy exaggerating like that?” Sam leaned over and kissed him lightly on the forehead.

Sam couldn’t even imagine being laid out when there was something so important to do. It would be hard for anyone but now that they were guardians, their job was even more important than it ever had been before. “I know it sucks. But you need to relax. I’m not letting you out of this house until you’re strong enough.”

“Thanks, mom.”

“Oh, shut up.” She said, playfully nudging his shoulder. “Go back to bed.”

Deanna pulled into the driveway at Morgan’s estate. This time, she headed for the main building. She was pretty sure that’s where they’d be. Her grandfather’s truck was parked right in front of the doorway, the doors left open.

She stopped her car right behind the pickup truck and walked over to look inside. It was a mess. There was blue blood all over the passenger seat but there was none on the driver’s side. She was relieved to see that Arratta couldn’t have been hurt. Now it was just a matter of whether Morgan was the only one injured or if Marius had been hurt too. She couldn’t tell from the scene inside the car. The two would have been seated so closely together inside the small cabin of the truck that a small amount of Marius’ blood would have been easily covered by the sheer amount of Morgan’s blood that covered everything.

Gathering her resolve, Deanna walked determinedly up the stairs into the main building. The foyer was like a large open cavern. There was very little furniture inside, only a long table stretched along the left wall with a red vase in the center. There was no one in sight. No bustling servants, no demons or leanthans. The building appeared to be abandoned at the moment.

Deanna followed the small droplets of blood along the floor that led her up the stairs across from the entrance. At the top of the first flight, the drops veered off, down the hallway and into a room behind a closed door.

She knocked loudly on the heavy door and waited. She didn’t want to rush into the room unannounced. Her family was too strong and dangerous to risk catching them off guard. Especially if one of them was injured.