Guardian Of The Grove (12 page)

Shalana slowly stepped from the throne, almost as if she was stretching her limbs. She walked at a leisurely pace down the stone pathway toward us. “The sacred grove is closed to outsiders. Tell me why you have come, and I may spare your life.”

Jackson moved forward to answer, and Alby dropped to one knee in front of her guardian. I placed a hand on Jackson’s shoulder, and he stepped back.

Shalana seemed to have noticed for the first time that one of her own was traveling with us. She reached down, slipping a finger under Alby’s chin and tilting it up toward her. When their eyes met, she asked, “Why do you travel with outsiders, Sister?”

“I’ve known one of them almost my entire life, Guardian. I have asked them here to help us with the veil and to stop what has come through it.”

“So not only have you brought outsiders into our home but you are accusing me of betraying my duty to our clan.”

“I would never imply such a thing, Guardian.”

“Just your presence here implies it. We have no need for outside assistance.” I stepped forward, and Shalana’s eyes moved to me for the first time. “Not only that but you brought a Lycan into our home. Shame on you, child.”

“Do you not recognize me, Shalana? We have been friends for many years, and we have helped each other many times in the past.”

“Your face seems familiar to me, but your name dances just out of reach.”

“Sarah Blackthorn. I have come to offer the services of my son to help with whatever you need done.”

“Sarah Blackthorn, it comes back to me now.” Shalana placed one hand to her temple and then smiled. “We were friends, but I haven’t seen you in some time.”

“It was my hope that we were still friends.”

“If you have truly come to help, then I will not refuse you the opportunity to do so.” She flicked a wrist, and all of the guards raised their spears and went back into a more restful formation. “There is one thing I may call on you to handle for us. Once you have proved your worth, we may speak again.”

“Shalana, I have only come to make an introduction for my son, Jackson. Unfortunately, I have other business that I must attend to. As a friend of the grove, I hope you will treat him with the same respect that you have for me.”

“That I will,” she said, walking back toward the throne. “Guards, see her out.”

I turned to Jackson and smiled for all of the guards to see. On the inside, I was trying to keep my emotions from spilling out. Something was wrong here; Shalana was not herself. I debated staying with my son, but I had work to do, and the longer I waited to get back there, the harder it would be to accomplish what I had come for.

I pulled Jackson close, giving him a hug, and whispered into his ear. “Be alert. Something isn’t right here.” I smiled, holding him out at shoulder’s length. “I have to go now.”

He met my eyes and whispered back, “I’ll be careful.”

It wasn’t enough to be careful; he had to be vigilant. We didn’t have the luxury of speaking openly, or I would have told him to be on guard. I knew with his friends beside him that everything would be ok. Each step that I took out of the room felt as if I was leaving him for the last time. I hoped that wasn’t the case.

W
hen I told
Sarah I’d be careful, what I really meant was that I was ready for anything. This Shalana seemed mad as a hatter, and that meant we could end up fighting our way out of here. I spared my mother one last glance before walking forward. Alby waited where she was, but April and Marcus followed me. Shalana climbed onto the giant throne and draped one leg casually over the arm of the chair.

“It’s ok to join us, child,” she said, almost as if she was already tired of our presence. Alby rose from where she had been kneeling and joined our group. “Since you have brought the Ascended to our doorstep, it only seems fair that you should be sent with them to complete this task. Do you agree?”

“Guardian, I will do whatever you command,” Alby replied.

“See that you do.”

“And what is it you require from us?” I asked, hoping to bring the conversation back on point. I also hoped to keep as much of the attention off of Alby as I could.

“Something came through the veil two days ago; I need you to locate it and destroy it. If you can succeed where my guards have failed, then I will be indebted to you.”

“Tell me what we are hunting.”

“We call it a cheeno. You may know it by its more common name on this plane, as a wendigo. It’s an extremely powerful manifestation of evil, and it must be stopped before it can do serious harm. Do you think you are up to the task?”

“We will find this cheeno and kill it.”

“Killing it is not enough. I need you to bring me back its heart.”

“Why such a gruesome trophy?”

“You dare question my orders here, in my home? Is it not enough that I have blessed you with this task to prove yourselves instead of having my guards strike you down? You asked what you could do for me. This is it. Kill the beast and bring me its heart.”

“We will do as you command. Do you have any idea where we can locate the cheeno?”

“By now the city is its plaything, but it only hunts at night. So you have until sundown to figure out where it will be. After that, I would suggest following the sound of human screams.”

She waited to see if we had anything else left to say. When the room remained silent, Shalana spoke again. “Guards, take them back to the surface.”

We followed the guards out of the room in silence. We didn’t say a word until we were back in Alby’s car and heading into town.

“Well, that wasn’t what I expected.”

Alby tore her gaze away from the street to look at me for a moment. “That wasn’t what any of us should have expected. I can see it clearly now. Something is wrong with our leader. She would never have acted that way in the past. Once a guest is welcomed into the grove, they are treated with respect until such a time that they prove that they don’t deserve it anymore. Not to mention it almost seemed as if she didn’t know who your mom was.”

“You noticed that too?”

“Yeah, and from the stories I have heard, she would never have forgotten her.”

April leaned forward from the back seat. “So what are we going to do now?”

Everyone kind of took a deep breath and looked at me. I’m not sure exactly how I became our group’s de facto leader. April was better at fighting than I was, and Marcus could squash me with his magic. I was still playing catch up with this whole thing, yet somehow they all looked to me for the answer. “I don’t see that we have much of a choice. If this thing gets loose in the city, it would be our job to stop it anyway. The only thing we have to decide on is whether to give her the heart or not.”

Marcus leaned forward. “No way, bro. We can’t give it to her. That is going to be a powerful magical item. No way we put that in the hands of someone that unstable.”

“What do you think, Alby?” We needed her input; these were her people, and she was going to be the one dealing with the fallout from this situation.

“Everything I have been trained to do tells me to give it to her, but we can’t. We need to find this thing to stop it, and find a way to stop Shalana. She is sick, or not herself. The only way to do that may be to challenge her for the grove. Only a few of the elders would be able to do it, but I doubt any of them would have the courage.”

April jumped back in. “Then we handle what we can control. We find this thing and kill it. Once we do that, we are going to be counting on you to point us in the right direction, Alby.”

“I’ll figure something out,” she said with a grimace. Her knuckles were already white on the steering wheel.

“Good, at least we have a preliminary plan in place. Let’s head back to the house. If we are going to be out in public, we will need to change back into normal clothes.”

“Got it,” Alby said. The car shot forward as she punched the gas. Now that we had a direction to go in, she handled the vehicle like a Nascar driver.

* * *

W
hen we pulled back
into the driveway, we immediately had an entirely new set of problems. Detective Velasquez was waiting for us with the two officers who had been tasked with watching our house. There was no way this would end well, with all of us dressed in our combat gear. When we pulled forward, the officers didn’t pull their weapons. At least that was a better start than the day before.

“Guys, just follow my lead, ok?” I unstrapped my harness and wrapped the leather around the two blades. We filed out of the car, and the officers put their hands on their guns. Ok, so maybe not that much better than the other day.

The detective didn’t so much as flinch at the sight of our clothes. “What’s up with the crazy outfits, Jackson?”

I handed my swords to April. “Why don’t you guys head inside while I speak with the detective.” The three of them walked past me. I could see the two officers eyeing April. Since she had been the one who put them to sleep earlier, that made sense. “We were just out doing a bit of cosplay.”

“Cosplay, huh?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“So if I was inclined to check those weapons, they wouldn’t be real swords.”

“Oh, they are real enough.” Her eyes widened. “As in they are made out of metal but aren’t sharpened. We do a little bit of LARP as well. It’s a fun time, and it helps to keep us in shape.”

“What in the hell is LARP?” one of the cops asked from behind her.

“Live action role playing. We do simulated battles and some sword fights. It’s a blast.”

“When I was a kid, we used our imaginations.”

“Me too, but now we can do it without pretending our sticks are swords.”

She waved to the two officers. They got back into their car and drove down the road. They did a U-turn and parked in the same spot they had been in this morning. “So I got a funny call this morning.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, my two officers called and said that everyone had left the premises. Somehow they had fallen asleep. Know anything about that?”

“Doesn’t ring a bell.”

“Listen, they are here for your protection, to make sure whoever killed your parents doesn’t hurt you.”

“You might as well send them away. If the people who hurt my parents came back, they wouldn’t last five seconds.”

“So you know who did it?”

“Not at all, but I know of them.”

“Damn it, kid, level with me.”

“I can’t drag you into this, Detective, but maybe you could help me with something.”

“Why in the hell would I do that?”

“Let’s just say it might save your department some money.”

She laughed, but it had an ugly tone to it. “What, now you’re threatening my department? You’ve got a lot of nerve.”

“So did the officer who brought me into the precinct and paraded me around in front of the cameras. I’m pretty sure a lawsuit wouldn’t end in your favor.”

She gave me a hard stare, one that probably had broken criminals all over the city. “No guarantees that I’ll help, but you might as well tell me what you want.”

“I need to know if there have been any disturbances. It will be something abnormal that happened within the last twenty-four hours.”

“That’s not a lot to go on.”

“Head back to the station or wherever it is easiest for you to access that kind of information. I have a few calls to make, and I’ll be able to narrow it down for you.”

“Listen, kid, I don’t work for you. I’m willing to do you a solid if you keep my department out of the courthouse, but don’t fucking push it!”

“Trust me when I tell you, Detective, that you want us to get this information quickly. I can’t tell you what we are going to do with it, but I promise you as much as you hate doing me any favors, giving us the information could save lives.”

“I’ll be expecting your call. I think after this you might end up owing me one.”

“I can handle that as long as the information pans out.”

She stared at me for a moment, sizing me up and probably deciding on if the trouble she might get into was worth it for the information she wanted. Then she shook her head as if trying to clear it and walked back to her car. I watched her pick up her radio. The cops in the street circled and drove away. She watched me for a moment out of her side mirror and then slowly pulled out of the driveway. There was no doubt in my mind that she was wondering just what in the hell she had gotten herself tangled up in. Thank God that cop had made such a big mistake. It gave me just the right amount of leverage. I walked back into the house, somehow knowing that wouldn’t be the last time I ran into Detective Velasquez.

* * *

W
hen I got inside
, Marcus was already on the phone. I hoped he was making a call to find out more about what the wendigo was and its weaknesses. I remembered a few things from cheesy late night horror movies, but not enough for it to be relevant. Alby was sitting in the kitchen, watching Marcus pace back and forth. April must have headed upstairs to change.

When I opened the door to my room, I caught the sight of creamy white skin as April slid her shirt down. We trained with each other almost daily, and most of the time she only wore a sports bra and her leggings, but something about getting to see a tiny bit of her exposed flesh while she was in her street clothes gave me pause. When I pulled my gaze back up, she was looking at me over her shoulder with a smile on her face.

“See something you like?”

I almost laughed because it was so unlike April to throw out a flirty comment. It was a good thing that I didn’t, because when I didn’t respond right away, that smile turned into a pouty frown. She turned toward me, and I moved forward, pulling her into a hug. “Every time I look at you, I see something I like,” I whispered. See, I was starting to get the hang of this thing.

“That was a pretty smooth save, Jackson,” she said, nuzzling her head into my chest.

“What can I say? I’m a master of good timing.”

She tilted her head up, and our lips brushed against each other’s. I pulled back, looking into her eyes and seeing everything that I had ever hoped for reflected there. “Not to be a total buzzkill, but I think I need to break up with Britta before we take this any further.”

She slapped me on the chest. “I’m not sure what you thought was going to happen in here, but that certainly wasn’t it.”

This time, I did laugh. I loved that she got angry when she thought I was slighting her. The laughter poured out of me, only stopping when I saw the uncertainty in her eyes. “It wasn’t that, April. It was just that I see myself being with you, and I want to make sure we start this right. Without any unneeded baggage. It only seems fair that I tell Britta in person before I fall any harder for you.”

April stepped forward and planted a kiss on my cheek. “I’ll see you downstairs.”

Ok, so maybe I didn’t have this girl thing down pat yet, but I was getting better at it. I just knew that for me to be the kind of man I wanted to be, I could never be in two relationships at once. Britta needed to hear the truth, and to hear it from me in person. Once that was taken care of, I could devote myself to April in the way she deserved. Until then, we had to play it cool, and that meant just friends, mostly.

Dressed back in my shorts and a T-shirt, I headed downstairs to see if they had made any progress. Everyone was gathered in the kitchen. I shoved my feelings for the room aside. I wasn’t going to make everyone leave the room for me. Who knows? Maybe making new memories in the same spot would help take the sting of what had happened in there away.