Guardian's Hope (30 page)

“Broadbent, sweetie, you’ve got to be more
careful.”

“Tell me about it,” Nardo griped.

Hope knelt beside him on the other side and
began to wash away the blood. The wounds weren’t deep and the two
women breathed a sigh of relief. Hope looked at the wounded man’s
face and began to smile. The smile froze on her face and her hand
stopped mid-swipe. She continued to stare at Broadbent. Whatever he
wanted to say was important and he needed to say it to her. Her
eyes widened.

“Tell me,” she whispered.

Broadbent gripped her shoulder. “I saw your
sister, Hope. Faith is still alive.”

Hope sat back on her heels and continued to
stare. She’d half convinced herself that Faith must be dead and she
was prepared for the bad news. It took her a moment to process the
good.

“Where is she? When can I go get her? When
can I bring her home?” Her whole body was shaking with energy. She
wanted to do something, anything. She wanted to run and share the
news with Nico, but Nico wasn’t here.

She opened the bridge as wide as she
could
. Can you hear me, love? Faith is alive! My sister is
alive.
There was no response. She couldn’t tell if the bridge
was closed at his end or if he was too far away. She was surrounded
by friends and yet she’d never felt so alone.

Nardo began the story and Broadbent
interrupted to tell of his encounter with Faith.

“Her eyes appeared blind and yet she knew I
was there in front of her. I swear she looked right into my eyes.”
He mimicked Faith’s actions as he spoke. “She didn’t speak, but her
actions seemed to say, ‘Good. Look at me. See my fist. Look at my
fingers. See the paper drop.’ It was the strangest thing,” he
continued. “It was as if she was in a trance, yet she did what she
could to communicate.” He shook his head. “And suddenly there was a
demon coming at me. The fight was on and she was gone.”

Hope thought of the way she and Nico could
communicate and she had to ask. “Do you think she was reaching you
telepathically?”

“Can she do that?” Canaan asked.

“Can you?” asked Grace.

“No,” Hope answered. It wasn’t a lie. She
couldn’t speak to anyone but Nico. “It was just the way Broadbent
described it.”

“No,” he said, “I’m sorry if I gave that
impression. It was the only way I could think of to describe what
happened. It isn’t enough to say she dropped a note. It was very
deliberate.”

“We searched for hours, Hope.” Nardo dug into
the front pocket of his soggy jeans and spoke to Grace. “And before
you say anything, I tried to make him go home. He wouldn’t listen.
The professor insisted on staying to search. It was pouring. You
know what that does to tracking. Everything is washed away. We kept
moving farther and farther out from the scene. Broadbent found the
second note. I found the third.”

He opened the notes one at a time and spread
them out on Broadbent’s legs. Written on consecutive pages, each
one came from the same cookbook as the others and each one said the
same.

Help me – Hope

“As soon as I get into some dry clothes, I’m
going to plot the points where we found these on a map, set up a
search grid and see if I can’t work up a few probabilities. They
had to be on foot or she couldn’t have dropped those notes. An open
car window in the pouring rain would have been way too
noticeable.”

“They have to be in that area, Hope. It
narrows the search. We’re getting closer.”

He wanted to say more and Hope knew it.

“What is it, Canaan. Feel free to say what
you think. I can take it.”

He looked at her strangely. “Please
understand, Hope. It’s my duty as Liege Lord of this House to look
at all the angles of possibility. It doesn’t mean I believe
them.”

“I understand.” More than you realize.

“If she’s being held against her will, I have
to ask myself why she didn’t throw herself at these two, when they
were so obviously willing to fight for her.”

“I don’t think she could, Canaan. I’m telling
you she looked like she was fighting a trance, like she was
blinded.” Broadbent tried to sit up, but Grace pushed him back.

“You wait until I douse those cuts,” she said
and unstoppered a small bottle.

Broadbent winced. “Sometimes I think I would
rather bear the scars.

“No,” Hope said without thinking. “You
wouldn’t.”

Grace smiled at Hope and winked. “Listen to
the lady, mister. She knows what she’s talking about,” and to the
frowning Canaan, “Sorry, my lord, please continue.”

He nodded his thanks and continued, “Even if
I agree with Broadbent, and I’m leaning that way, we still have to
look at the possibility that she’s being used, willingly or
unwillingly, to lure Hope and/or us into a trap.” He ran his hand
through his hair. “Don’t you see? We thought we were dealing with a
human problem. Now we know we’re not. It changes all the angles.
Look, we’ve seen it before; a demon working with a Daughter…”

“She wasn’t! Don’t say it.”

“I’m sorry, Grace. How about calling her a
woman of power? Okay. We also know that Faith is a woman of power.
Don’t say it, Grace. I’m running out of words and patience.”

Grace meekly subsided and Hope realized that
this was what Nico meant about pushing Canaan too far.

“Faith would have to be wouldn’t she? Hope is
a Daughter of Man. They’re sisters born of the same mother. Is she
using her powers for them or are they forcing her or somehow
controlling her powers? We don’t know. Do they want Hope because of
her abilities? We don’t know. I do know that the notes bother me.”
He looked directly at Hope.

“It’s the dash. If the note read Hope dash
Help me, I would read it as a note to you. But that’s not what it
says. Help me dash Hope says the note is from you.”

“That makes no sense,” Broadbent thought
aloud.

“Exactly. We have a lot of questions and very
few answers. I want to proceed carefully, cautiously on this. No
jumping the gun. And as much as I hate saying it, we can’t trust
that Faith is on our side. We’ll find her, Hope, but I don’t want
to lose anyone while we’re doing it.”

“I understand,” she said and she did, but the
only thing that mattered to her was that Faith had used her
name.

*****

Dov and Col stood shoulder to shoulder in the
hall of a typical shoebox apartment block. They held their heads
together smiling into the peephole of No.57.

“What do you want?” said a woman’s voice from
behind the door.

“Nora? Do you remember us?” Col smile was
that of an innocent angel.

Nora laughed through the door. “How could I
forget?” They were excellent tippers, still… “What do you want?
It’s two o’clock in the morning.”

“We know and we’re sorry. We thought it would
be best to talk to you after work. We didn’t want to get you in
trouble. We saw how that bastard bartender treated you girls.” Dov
looked truly remorseful.

“Thanks, I appreciate it, but you still
haven’t told me what you want.” She still wasn’t opening the door,
but she was softening. They seemed like nice boys.

Col looked fearfully down both direction of
the hall. “Look, Nora, if we keep talking out here, one of the
neighbors is going to think the worst about you and that just
wouldn’t be right. It’s about our sister, Nora, and we need your
help.”

“Both our sisters,” Dov added. He looked on
the verge of tears. “Please Nora, let us in. We need help and we
don’t know where else to turn.”

They heard the chain slide from its hook and
bumped fists down at their sides. They were in.

*****

At supper, in between mouthfuls of stew, the
twins complained mightily about missing out on all the excitement.
They happily pumped fists in the air at the news that Faith was
alive, listened earnestly to Canaan’s admonition to tread carefully
and showed remarkable restraint when they waited until dessert to
share their news.

The cobbler and coffee was served before Dov
proudly declared, “We found Nora.”

Everyone around the table stared at him,
waiting.

“Not only did we find her, we talked to her,”
Col added.

“Well shit,” Dov said when the light dawned.
“You guys don’t even know who she is. And where the hell is Nico?
He’d be proud of us. He’d know what we’re talking about. Jeeze,
just when you need him the most, the guy disappears.”

Hope covered her mouth with her hand, but a
sharp, choked cry escaped as she fled from the room.

“Nice work, Dov.” Nardo looked disgusted.
“Why didn’t you just stab her in the heart when you still had your
butter knife.”

“What? What did I say?”

“Aw shit,” Col looked to Grace for
confirmation. “He left her, didn’t he? He took off.”

“Nuh uh.” Dov looked from face to face. When
Nardo nodded, he snarled, “He did, the shitty bastard.”

“That’s enough. I’ve told you before, this is
none of our business. Stay out of it.” Canaan looked down the table
to Grace. “And now you can see why women are frowned upon in a
House of Guardians.”

She didn’t argue with him. “I didn’t think it
would turn out like this.”

“No one ever does,” and then he addressed the
others, “Hope is our friend and some of you have become fond of
her. That’s as it should be, but Nico is a Guardian and a member of
my House. You will not let this interfere with the business of this
House. If we don’t work well together, someone will die and I won’t
have that happen because we’re divided over a woman. So let me
repeat myself. Stay out of it. When Nico comes back, as he must,
you will treat him with the honor and respect he deserves as a
loyal Guardian of the Race. Have I made myself clear?”

He wasn’t simply Canaan sitting at the head
of the dinner table. He was Liege Lord of this House. He looked
around the table, pausing at each Man’s face and with every pause,
each man replied,

“I serve at my Liege Lord’s command.”

“As you should.”

Grace signaled him with her eyes and pointed
to the ceiling. Canaan nodded.

“That’s probably a good idea, love.” Then he
turned to the others. “Now, let’s move this discussion back to the
conference table where Col and Dov can tell us all about their
discovery. Who is this Nora and why should we be so pleased that
you’ve found her.

*****

“And you thought of this all on your own?
Good lord, it would appear our troublesome twosome have actual
brains beneath those thick skulls. I’m impressed.” Broadbent
toasted the twins with his two fingers of Talisker’s Scotch
courtesy of Canaan’s private stock.

“It was Dov who remembered the name. Nico
only mentioned it in passing.” Col punched his brother
affectionately on the shoulder.

“Yeah, but I would have screwed up getting
her to talk to us. Col handled that part.”

“It was good work by both of you.” Canaan
gave them each a nod.

This was the first time the Liege Lord had
shared his precious scotch with either of them willingly. They’d
had a taste of it once before when Canaan was out of town, but this
was different, like they’d somehow taken another step into
adulthood.

“We told her Hope was our sister and Nora
remembered the night.” Dov looked at his brother and grinned.
“Actually, she remembered Nico, called him the Dark Knight. She
felt real bad and all, us searching for our missing sister and that
creep of a bartender taking Hope’s purse. She doesn’t know where he
lives, but she’s going to find out. She’s pretty sure none of the
other girls would know ‘cause they all steer clear of him. He may
manage the place, but you won’t find any of the help trying to cozy
up. Seems there’s a lot of nasty stories that say he can’t get it
off without causing pain and according to Nora, we’re talking big
time pain.”

Col took over. “She was more than happy to
help us as long as we keep her name out of it. She doesn’t like
Smith, but she earns good money at Bloodsuckers and she doesn’t
want to lose the gig. Other than that, she says she’ll, and I quote
“ do anything I can if you promise me that rat bastard’ll get
what’s coming to him.”

“So I said yeah, I think we can promise
that,” Dov was grinning ear to ear. “She also warned us to be
careful because said rat bastard had connections. According to her,
that place has violated every ordinance on the books but nothing
ever happens. He just laughs when they get written up and says he
won’t be surprised if the paperwork gets lost.” Dov sobered and
looked at Col. “I think we better tell them the rest as long as
Nico and Hope aren’t here to hear it.”

Col looked around the table. “She also says
he’s been flashing wads of cash, placing bets and playing the
numbers and he brags about his new friend and an endless supply
of…” He made a rude hand gesture. “Anything he wants, any time he
wants and just the way he likes it.”

Nardo slammed the table with his fist. “If
they’ve got Hope’s sister involved in that shit…”

“We’ll deal with it when the time comes,”
Canaan interrupted, “How soon can she get the information?”

“She doesn’t work tonight or tomorrow. She
should have it the night after that. If she can’t get it from the
girls, she’ll follow him home if she has to. And Boss?” Col looked
a little worried. “We told her we’d pay her for her time. She said
she’d do it for free. She hates this guy that much, but we said it
wouldn’t be right, her taking all the risk.”

“She’ll be well rewarded. If Nico doesn’t
take care of it, I will.” Canaan laid both hands on the table. The
meeting was over.

“Did Nico happen to say how long he’d be
gone?” Broadbent’s tone was only slightly curious.

“Yeah, as long as it takes.” Canaan rolled
his eyes. “He’s coming back. Let’s leave it at that.”

“You mind if I ask how far back you checked
him out, boss? Nardo asked cautiously.