Born of Silence (Immortal Guardians)

Evernight Publishing

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright© 2012 Katalyn Sage

ISBN:
978-1-77130-127-5

Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

Editor: Marie Medina

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING:
The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.  No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or
in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DEDICATION

To Terran, who came into my life so suddenly.

You are so much a part of me that I feel like I've known you forever. I love you.

Immortal Guardians, 3

Katalyn Sage

Copyright © 2012

Chapter One

“Good morning.”

Garrick jumped at the male voice that was so close to his ear. From behind his closed eyelids he could see how bright the light was above him, shining down on him like a godsdamned spotlight out to prove something. It was hot compared to the cold slab under him, creating a sensory overload between the front of his body and all along his back. He slowly opened his eyes, blinking at the fuzziness of his vision.

“You gave us quite a scare, Guardian,” the man said.

Garrick was groggy, but
he
focus
ed
to the best of his ability as he looked upward. The voice was coming from his right, and as he moved his head in that direction, his neck muscles gave out. He
grunted
in pain as his head came to a hard stop on the metal bed and a thunderous
boom
reverberated through the room. The
sound
did wonders for the headache that pounded in his skull. A form took shape directly above him as he blinked at the haziness. “Where am I?” he croaked.

“
Ah, t
here you go. We were
beginning to
worr
y
that we took too much blood,” the man s
aid, almost sounding relieved.
“You’re at the Institute.”

“What’s the
Institute
?
” he asked slowly.

“Never mind that. How do you feel, Guardian?”

Garrick shook his head, although even
that simple a move was hard to accomplish
. “Not a Guardian.”

“I was afraid of that,” the other man tsked. “I had been told that we had one of the infamous
brothers
in our midst. One of the so-called elite. But, I figured I’d been misinformed. Despite our very thorough search, we could not find your Mark.
” That was said with a hint of pity
, and Garrick started to wonder what exactly their ‘thorough search’ had entailed
.
“
Well then, what should we call you?”

He
kept his mouth shut, not wanting to tell anyone any more information than they already knew. He didn’t know where he was, and he didn’t know who—if anyone—was with him. And that wasn’t the worst part. He could tell they’d done something to him
,
something more than simply searching for a tattoo and taking a little blood. The last thing he could remember was defending Nitro against the new demons that had fallen on them. Was she here as well? Or had she escaped? “Where’s Nitro?”

“Oh, I suggest you don’t say that name around here. Not unless you want your tongue removed. What clan are you?” he asked suddenly, changing the subject.

Garrick looked up at him, keeping his mouth shut tight.

The guy
returned his stare
, still appearing fuzzy to Garrick’s tired eyes. “Pity you won’t play nice.” He shook his head as he inserted something into Garrick’s stomach.

It was intensely hot as it slid into his skin just to the right of his belly button. Pain radiated through his entire body, feeling as though the bastard was not only searing his skin, but a few important organs as well. “What is your name?” he yelled.

“Garrick,” he
replied every bit as loudly
. The evil bastard pulled back, making the pain subside only slightly.
Garrick inhaled slowly, exhaling through his gritted teeth.
“My name is Garrick.”

“Very good. That wasn’t so hard
,
was it? Now for the next question, we know you’re Fae. What clan are you from?”

He
hissed, still in pain from the red-hot poker that
had been inserted into his abdomen
. It was enough that it almost cleared away his thoughts. How could this man know about the Fae? His race was still considered “mythological,” and if this white-coated SOB knew that his people existed, then he was in some serious trouble. “I
…
what?”

The man got so very close to Garrick’s ear that he shuddered from the feel of his breath. “You’ll want to cooperate, Fairy. You really don’t want to know what happens if you don’t. What I just did
to you will seem like a
picnic.”

He
was groggy,
weak, and sore all over
. He knew without a doubt that the man standing over him would do whatever he felt like whenever he felt like, no mat
ter what information he gave up
. He forced himself to focus as he looked up at him, finally coming out of his haze enough to see a white lab coat and black-rimmed glasses on the guy’s nose. He wore white plastic gloves that were mostly covered in light blue blood—
his
blood, unless they had another of his kind, which was
nigh
impossible. And even the sleeves of his jacket were dusted with splatters and streaks of his lifeblood. Oh yeah, he was in some serious shit.

“Likely what wi
ll happen to me anyway,” he
breathed.

“Smart boy.” The doctor’s
eyes glowed with humor, somehow appearing even bigger in size behind his thick glasses. A smile spread across his face as he looked down his nose at Garrick. Meeting his gaze, he said, “Genine, get in here. And bring the drill.”

****

Garrick woke some
time later. Keeping his eyes closed, he assessed his surroundings. He was definitely in a different place. He no longer lay on the slick slab. Now he was on what felt like hard, cold
, and not all that flat,
rock. Even the room itself was considerably colder. It was also silent, other than the repetitive tinkling sound of dripping water hitting a hard surface. That likely meant he was alone at the moment, a fact that he sent a silent “thank you” to the gods for. Mustiness assaulted his nose, in no way pleasant. Other than that, he could get no other reading on where in the hell he was.

Opening his eyes, he looked around warily. It wasn’t nearly as bright a
s it had been earlier. There were
t
w
o fluorescent lights above him, which lit the room in an annoying
color that did
in no way helped
his pounding head.
All he could see wa
s dark rock. The ceiling,
the walls, and even the floor he la
y
on, was all black rock. About ten feet away, there was a metal door with a single window at eye-level and what looked to be a swinging door at the bottom. Garrick’s eyes darted around the darkened walls, taking in whatever he could of his surroundings. He found out quickly that sitting up was a bitch, since whatever that scientist asshole did to him still affected his body. Fighting the pain, he rolled to his knees and followed the blackened rock as it wrapped in a wide arc around where he’d lain.

He was completely
e
ncased in a cave-like tomb. He’d been in a place similar to this once before
, the memory causing a flood of dread to course through him
. When he was a young boy, his family had been abducted in hopes of gaining power in the
Fairy Court
. Their abductors hadn’t been able to get their hands on the actual members of the Blue Blood royalty, so as the closest they could get to immediate family, Garrick, his mother, and his sisters Abigail and Gabriella, had been kidnapped in their stead. Garrick and his family had been locked in the underbelly of the Black Bloods—the
Druag
Clan’s—territory for days, though they were never treated particularly badly
, if he could overlook being starved and dehydrated most of the time. Whenever they did bring food, it was bits of old, stale bread, rotting stews, and dirty water—and never enough to fill their bellies, just enough to keep them alive.
Eventually the Black Bloods had kidnapped members of each of the other clans as well
and had used them all to regain their
seat in the
Fairy Court
.

The ploy had worked. Each royal family had bent to the Black Bloods
’
will, allowing them a seat. With their victory, they had
sent
everyone
scampering back home as fast as they could run or trace.

Even now, the
Druag
Clan had a chair in court, where they have their own say in Fae matt
ers, even though no fairy trusted
them.
Though it wasn’t only their ransoming their way back into court that caused mistrust between the clans.
The Black Bloods were known for their black magic, which was rumored
as the reason
their lifeblood was the blackness of tar.
Their fascination and regular use of the black arts
had been why they had originally lost their chair in court centuries before.