The Guardian (3 page)

Michael’s face grew even grimmer as he easily side-stepped
his attempted attack. “And that is why you were cast out.” The light gathering
in Michael’s hands surrounded Lucas. Lucas fell to his side clutching his head.
He screamed in agony while writhing on the ground.

Cassie put her hand over her mouth to keep her from
crying out and giving away her hiding place. She was not sure how well Lucas
could hear, and he had proven himself to be dangerous. The screams faded as
well as the light in Michael’s limbs faded until he looked like a normal man
again.
A normal, naked man.
“Lucas, I hope you find a
way to cleanse your soul during this time of solitude. Do not stretch
Ilithyia’s
compassion. Even our loving Goddess has her
limits of what she will tolerate.” The air shimmered again. Michael blurred for
a moment, and then a large cougar was standing in his place. It stared intently
at Lucas who was gasping for air on the ground. Then the cougar loped off
towards the road.

Cassie held her breath as she waited to see what the
man who attacked her would do. Would he be able to smell her in the bush? She
had noticed the strong scent this bush had, and hoped it hid her scent. She
wondered if they had a strong sense of smell like other animals had. Now that
the cougar who had stepped in to save her was gone, her fear grew once again.
Lucas groaned painfully, blurred and turned into a wolf once more.

He struggled to his feet when a huge black wolf came
up to him, and turned into a human man. She could not get a good look at him,
since he was hiding in the shadows. “This was very stupid of you, Lucas. You
are putting my plans in danger by attracting the attention of Michael and Cole.”

Lucas changed back, and looked towards the woods where
the stranger was standing. “You don’t know who she was.”

“Yes, yes. She hurt your family, killed a few dozen
worthless humans. Not my concern. You get a grip on yourself, or I will end our
partnership.” Cassie could see the blurring then saw the black wolf stroll
away.

Lucas stared after him for a moment. “Psychotic fucker,”
he murmured before shifting once again and limping away.

Cassie let out the breath she had been holding. He had
not sensed her hiding. She saw something blinking in the bush with her. It was
like a firefly, but she could see a cherubic face. It was looking at her with a
sad expression. Then it kissed her knee and fluttered off soundlessly. She
stared into the
darkness,
sure she had just imagined
that.

Silence fell on the forest once more. It was an
unnatural silence like before a terrible storm when everything was in hiding.
Cassie sat in the bush trying to think of what to do. She curled in on herself
wrapping her arms around her drawn up knees. Cassie rocked back and forty while
tears fell. She struggled to hold in the sobs that were burning her chest. It
worked at first, but she struggled in vain to hold it in. She felt the pain
growing in her chest as the images of Marcy’s lifeless body flashed in her
vision over and over again.

Lucas knew Marcy, and he came after her to kill her.
“No, it’s my fault. I left her. It’s
all my
fault. I
killed her.” She heard a shrill wail and realized she was crying
uncontrollably. It was not a cleansing cry, but a soul sucking cry that only
made her pain and loneliness grow.
 
She
had no idea how long she sat in the bush sobbing before she was too exhausted
to cry anymore. She had to move. She sat there for a while trying to think of
what to do. Marcy had driven them up there, and Cassie didn’t even have a car.
She could not bring herself to go back to the cabin and see Marcy’s body
again.
 
Grief and guilt choked her again,
and she let a dry sob, which felt like sandpaper on her already sore throat.
Oh Marcy, I—I am so sorry.
Her body
shook as she cried, holding her hands over face. She had no idea how long it
had taken her to cry out all of her anguish. She sat there feeling numb for a
moment, before she heard a car in the distance.
The road must not be far. I can get there if I hurry and get away from
here.
Fortunately she had her wallet in the pocket of her jean shorts. She
could catch a ride into town and get a motel. Tomorrow she would go to the
sheriff, and ask a deputy to collect her things from the cabin. She did not
think she would be able to ever go back there again.

Chapter
Three

Michael pulled back the sheet to look at the body in
the cabin. Regret filled him as he looked at the young woman who had her life
cut short. Despite Lucas’s insane ranting about this woman, Michael was sure
she was innocent. Lucas swore this was the woman that had killed Allie, but
Lucas was still out of his mind with grief. This young woman was in Michael’s territory,
and it was his duty to protect her. Knowing a renegade shifter killed her made
his sense of guilt even stronger. He placed his hand gently on the uninjured
side of her face. Her skin was already cooling, so it was already too late. If
he had gotten here sooner perhaps they could have saved her.

“This is not the one that Lucas was attacking in the
woods. She was not here alone.” Michael turned his attention to his
Kelach
, territory beta, and the sheriff of the county, Cole
Milano.

Cole shook his head. “No. There is another here. I can
tell by the scent. Another girl called into the dispatch office, but the signal
was lost. She made it clear they both had been attacked by an animal.”

“You know what this means if Lucas bit her.” Michael
could feel a headache coming on. He hoped this young woman did not have any
shifter DNA in her. She would start to change, but not have a guardian to
control the presence raging in her body. Michael shuddered at the image from
the last time a guardian had sex with a human not knowing she was a
halfling
. The guardian could not mate with the poor girl,
so he was forced to use the bite to change her fully before the stirring
essence destroyed her cells. The woman had not wanted to become a shifter, and
she had fought a long battle with depression to come to terms with her new
life.

Michael looked at the body on the floor again. There
had been enough death tonight. He would not allow another innocent woman to
suffer a painful death. If she was fully human, they would just need to bandage
her wounds,
then
try to convince her that it was just
a hungry wolf that attacked her. He did not wish to tamper with her memory.
That was an exhausting and painful process, and it was only a last resort to
protect shifters. The alternative was to eliminate the threat. Michael refused
to follow in Lucas’s footsteps. Lucas had turned to killing humans in a
misguided attempt to protect the shifters. He had forgotten that all life was
precious, even human.

Cole walked over to where her cell phone was in
pieces. “It looks like she dropped her phone. The screen is shattered. She was
bleeding while she was in here as well.”

Michael nodded. He smelled her blood as well as the
acrid smell of her fear. “I saw her run back in here. Something scared her away
before I was finished with Lucas. I know she saw both of us shift. We really
need to find her.”

“I have Aaron and Brad tracking her. She was still
bleeding when she ran,” Cole told Michael while he rubbed the back of his neck
as if he was in pain.

Deputy Brad Ember walked in. “We lost her scent at the
highway. It seems she made her way down to the road and caught a ride.”

“Any idea which direction she went?” Michael
asked.
 
If they were going to need to
intervene, he did not want to be searching heavily populated areas. Monitoring
emergency rooms would probably find her, but human medicine would not help her
if she had any shifter DNA in her genes.

“The trail ended on the eastbound lane. She may have
headed into town.”

Michael sure hoped so. He did not want to send the
cholan
protectors after her. Even though she had not done
any harm to anyone in his territory, she would need to be found and make sure
she would not remember any shifters. It would make it a lot easier to find her
if she had gone into town. Once he found her and made sure she had no shifter
DNA, he would see her home safely. She would remember a wild animal attacking
them, but have no memory of their shifting. He hated to think about restraining
an innocent woman so he could alter her memory. Even if she wanted to
cooperate, the pain would have her thrashing around. She could hurt herself by
accident.
 
If one of her parents were
shifters he would need to change her fully. That was painful as well, but at
least he had more options for easing the pain.
 
Lucas had not bitten her long enough to change her, but she would be in
excruciating pain, worse than either of the options, by morning if she had any
shifter blood in her.

****

Cassie walked down the highway thinking she was going
to have to walk all the way into town. Since she had found the road, not a
single car had driven past. She hoped it was not a long walk. Just when her
feet were really starting to hurt she heard an engine.
Oh please stop,
she begged silently as the car approached. She
waved her hands frantically in the air knowing she looked a mess. She had been
bloodied by the bites, and her hair must be full of leaves and twigs. She felt
her heart soar when a car slowed down.

The tan car stopped next to her, and a strawberry
blonde haired woman smiled kindly at her. “You look like you need some
help.”
 

“Thank you. Yes, I do. I’m Cassie.” Emotion choked her
voice, and she fought to steady her voice. “I was camping out that way. Please
can I get a ride into town?”

“Sure, climb on in. I’m Blair,” she said, moving her
purse out of the passenger seat.

Cassie sat in the comfortable seat of the Buick. If
she was not shaking so hard, she would have fallen asleep in the comfortable
seat. When Blair first stopped to pick Cassie up, she knew she couldn’t see
much, but now that she had some light from street lights Cassie feared Blair
could see the bruises and the blood streaked on her from the bites. Cassie knew
it could have been much worse. She could have been soaked in blood, but fortunately
it was minimal. She was sure her face and arms though were beginning to be a
mix of blue and purple bruises from fighting off her attacker.

Blair looked over at her, obviously concerned. “There
is a small hospital in Pleasant Cove. Doctor Trask is on duty tonight, and he
is a sweetheart. He can look you over and give you something for the pain.”

“It’s okay. I will go to my doctor when I get home.”
Cassie tried to smile encouragingly at the kind woman. She really did not want
strangers poking at her.

“Did you slip and fall while hiking? You have to be
careful on the trails,” Blair said as she drove down the main business
district.

Cassie could not think of another vague answer, and
she didn’t want to lie to her. Blair had been kind to her, and Cassie hated
lying. “No, some dog attacked my friend and
myself
.”
She could not bring herself to tell her how it killed her friend and she ran
away like a traitorous coward.

“Oh Cassie.”
Blair took her
hand like they were old friends and she was giving her support. “You have to
see the doctor for that. Please let me take you to see the doctor at the
clinic.” Blair seemed even more insistent now.

“Really, please.
No. I am
going home as soon as I get some transportation, and I will go to my doctor.”
Cassie kept her tone reasonable fearing Blair would say she was not being
rational.
 
She did not want a huge
emergency room bill for a bite, and she just wanted to collapse in a bed and
fall apart in private. She would go in to her doctor when she got home.

“I will make sure Myra checks in on you then. Animal
bites are nothing to mess with.”

“Myra?”

“Yeah, she is Warren’s m—uh—
girlfriend,
and they run the hotel together. Myra has the desk this evening.”

Cassie knew when to give in gracefully. “Okay.”

Blair pulled onto what looked like Main Street for the
tiny town. Pleasant Cove was a beautiful little town. It was dark outside, but
the street was well lit by black, wrought-iron lampposts. There were small
islands with bushes and flowers running down the center of the street. It was a
picture perfect town that Cassie would have loved to stay and explore a while at
any other time. They passed a bar, a diner that advertised breakfast and lunch
specials, a higher end restaurant that had dinner specials, a coffee shop with
a lovely sign that read “Rise and Grind coffee house and bakery”. She spotted
an ice cream and burger place that had a large sign advertising steak burgers
cooked to order, “Dan’s old fashioned Soda Fountain and Café”.

Further down the road was a hardware store named “Tools”,
a book store called “Reading Frenzy”, a mom-and-pop grocery store, and a
pharmacy. Several other buildings had names on them, but she wasn’t sure what
they were.
 
A sign with a blue H for the
hospital pointed up a side street. She knew that this was a small town, but she
was not expecting it to be this small. It wasn’t even on the online map site
she had looked at earlier. All she’d seen on any map were empty mountains
regions, forest, and state parks. No towns or villages. Marcy had been adamant
that there was a beautiful town out here that was not on any map.

Cassie closed her eyes for a moment when Marcy’s happy
face flashed before her eyes.
“There is a
town out there I swear.”

  
“I think you are looking at the wrong area,
Marcy. There is nothing here on the map, or Google.”

“Trust me, there
is. The people just are very good at being forgotten.”

“What the hell
is that supposed to mean, Marcy?”

Marcy only
smiled at her as if she knew a great secret. “They just do, and that is all I
will say.
 
Trust me, there’s a town.”

She was right after all. The thought of her friend
brought another stab of pain that tore through her heart.
Get a room first. Then I can have a meltdown.

Blair pulled into a small drive that held a cute motel
called the Pleasant Cove Motel with the words on the bottom saying “Come and
stay a while.”
 
It was a cute, well-kept
little motel, and Cassie thought, once again, that it was a shame she was
leaving in the morning to head back to Denver. No matter how nice the town
looked she had every intention of giving her statement to the sheriff, minus
the wolf turning into a man, and then she would go home, alone. “Thank you so
much, Blair. I wish you would let me pay you.”

“Oh no, None of that.
I would
just hope if my girl was in trouble somewhere then someone would help her.”

Cassie smiled at her. “If I pass someone in trouble I
will pass on your kindness.”

“That is the way it should be,” Blair agreed.

Blair drove up to a motel that had several rooms in
the main building, as well as some outdoor access rooms. Cassie got out of the
car and waved at Blair. “Thank you.”

Blair waved then drove away. Cassie turned to limp
towards the motel, and she walked down the sidewalk towards the front
office.
 
She noticed there was a little
man walking towards her. She knew it was impolite to stare, but she could not
help herself. He was the strangest looking man she had ever seen. He was small
but not a midget like she had seen on TV. He was rather scrawny and looked more
like something out of a fairytale. He had grey hair, a large nose, and sunken eyes.
He had a rather grumpy look to his face as he walked towards her.

“I bet you are just going to step on me, too, human,” the
grumpy little man growled.

“Excuse me?” Cassie asked still staring at the little
man.

“Shit, you heard me?”
 
He walked right up to her and sniffed her.

Cassie recoiled from the strange man sniffing her.

He looked at her, obviously confused. “You do not
smell of the magical essence.”

“Thank you, I think,” she
saidbacking
up a few steps.
 
He pulled his hood up on
his coat.

“Great. Now the fucking humans can see me. Thank you,
Goddess. Maybe now I won’t get stepped on so much.” He kept right on talking to
himself, and grumbling as he walked down the sidewalk.

“What a strange little man.” Cassie did not mean for
that to be said out loud.

She smacked her hand over her mouth when he turned
around and said, “I am a troll you ninny, not a little man.”
 
He sounded very offended and started ranting
and throwing his hands in the air in anger as he stomped off.
 

Cassie turned towards the front office of the motel. A
bell rang when she opened the door. A short woman with blonde hair, blue jeans,
and a long sleeve shirt walked in. Her brown eyes had a lot of warmth to them.

“Hi, sweetie,” she said with a beautiful smile on her
face. “What can I help you with?”

“I need a room please.” Cassie winced slightly at how
much it hurt to move. Her shoulder and side were still throbbing intensely. She
had been bitten by dogs before, big dogs even, but this was different. She made
the mistake once of getting in between a large, vicious dog and a scared puppy
once and got bitten several times before her friend came to the rescue. Those
bites were tender for a while, but they did not throb like this. She would need
a tetanus shot for sure.

The woman looked up and saw Cassie’s injuries, and her
eyes widened. “You’re Cassie, right? My name is Myra. Blair called and said you
needed some help. My goodness, what did you do to yourself?”

Cassie really did not want to explain the animal
attack again and have to fight off another worrier who insisted she go to the
hospital. All she needed was a hot shower and to crawl into a bed where she
could fall apart alone. “I had an accident while camping, which is why I need a
room.”