The Guardian Chronicles 1: Rise of the Phoenix (25 page)

“I’d love to stay here all day and thrash you around,” Thomas spoke as two of his goons hauled Gabriel to his feet. “But I really do have other things to do. Before I kill you however, I wanted to give you the pleasure of watching your brother die, knowing full well that if you were stronger you might have been able to save his life.”

Thomas smiled cruelly and drew his blade, placing it against Sean’s neck.

Gabriel wanted to cry out but he couldn’t find his voice. Pain burned through his whole body, causing each breath he took to send waves of agony through him. He tried to focus his mind and when he did he noticed that he could still feel the warm in his chest. Except now it was a burning desire, a pulsing center of power and intensity.

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl. He could hear his heart hammering away in his ears, he could feel the air slowly and painfully leaving his body after each breath. He remembered what Imogene had said; not to be afraid of the power.

Gabriel surrendered himself to it. The feeling building in his chest exploded outward surging through his limbs. New energy flowed back through him, pushing away the pain and fatigue. Time was still moving slowly, the blade slowly descending toward Sean’s neck.

Gabriel wasn’t really sure what happened next. He looked down to see his arms sheathed in flames up to his elbows. His back felt hot for a brief instant then suddenly a wave of fire lashed out, completely tearing apart the two vampires that had been standing on either side of him. Time sped up again and Gabriel exploded into motion.

Thomas’s eyes went wide as the next to vampires that came charging toward him exploded into ash as Gabriel’s blows hit them right in the chest. Gabriel spun around, unleashing a fireball that blew apart another charging vampire. Gabriel wasn’t sure how he was doing all this and at the moment he didn’t really care.

Gabriel charged forward, blasting and smashing his way through any vampire that got in his way. He was surrounded by a cloud of ash and embers; every vampire that he touched with his flame encased fists turned to ash almost instantly. None of them even got close to hitting him, he was like a force of nature; a swirling firestorm that tore apart anything in his past.

He launched another vampire across the room with an uppercut, slamming him into a locker. Fireballs erupted from his outstretched hands, ripping through the vampires that were still standing. Two more came at him, wielding immortal blades. Gabriel grabbed them both by the throat and slammed the vampires into the ground. They exploded into ash and embers as the holy fire around arms consumed them.

That left just Thomas and one more of the vampires. And both looked almost too stunned to really do anything.

“Drop the weapon!” Gabriel commanded, his voice was low and dangerous. He spun around, blasting the last standing vampire to ashes. “Do it!”

Thomas dropped the sword and backed up slightly. Gabriel surged forward, grabbing Thomas by the throat and lifting him high into the air. The flames around his hands peeled back so that they weren’t touching the vampire.

“Come near my family again and I will end you,” Gabriel growled. “Do you understand me?

Thomas nodded.

“Do you understand me?” Gabriel yelled again.

“I understand,” Thomas hissed.

Gabriel launched him backwards, sending him crashing through the locker room door. Gabriel looked down at his arms and watched as the flames died away. As soon as they were gone he felt light headed and the room tilted at a crazy angle. The last thing he saw before the world faded to black was Tony rushing toward him.

Marcus was not amused. The fact that his own son had failed to take down one single unarmed Guardian filled him with enough rage that he could have killed his own flesh and blood on the spot. He had stopped himself, but only because he only had a few heirs left and Thomas was by far the most competent one to take over.

“Can you please explain to me again why you and fourteen of your finest warriors were unable to capture one unarmed Guardian?” Marcus yelled. “You had one mission! One job and you couldn’t even accomplish that!”

“I don’t know what happened, father,” Thomas said, not meeting his father’s gaze. “We had him but then something… I don’t know where that fire came from and I don’t know how it managed to kill my men.”

“Because you and your men are idiots.”

“Janus!” Marcus snapped.

“Do you realize what you’ve done?” Janus asked, stalking into the room.

“What are you talking about?” Marcus asked.

“You carried out a strike against the Guardians without my authorization…”

“We don’t need your authorization to conduct our own affairs-”

Thomas never got to finish his sentence. Red lightning leapt from Janus’s fingertips, throwing Thomas across the room and into the far wall. Smoke curled up from around the vampire’s body and the smell of burned hair and singed flesh filled the room. Marcus bared his fangs and let out a menacing growl.

“Shut up,” Janus hissed. “He’ll live.”

“You had no right to do that!”

“You have no idea what you’ve done,” Janus responded angrily. He stalked forward so that he was standing face to face with Marcus. “Your little stunt could have cost us everything. We’re not ready for all-out war yet or did you forget that conversation?”

“It wasn’t a war,” Marcus shot back. He looked past Janus to see that Thomas had indeed managed to pick himself up off the floor. “It was a strike against the same group that destroyed our facility and may have gotten away with precious data.”

“Do not touch him again,” Janus warned. “Gabriel is an important part of what is to come.”

“You haven’t let us in on that fact,” Marcus sneered. “Something that isn’t lost on me and the rest of the vampire leaders. We are done grasping blindly in the dark, Janus and we want answers. If you want me to continue in this partnership then you will give them to me.”

Janus threw his head back and laughed. It was a laugh that chilled Marcus down to his bones, a haunting sound that was completely devoid of any kind of warmth.

“You really think that you can dictate terms to me?” Janus asked as he slowly crept forward. “You would be nothing without the funding that I organized. Without my help you never would have secured Arthur and his research to make your precious hybrids.”

Marcus wanted to surge across the space separating himself and Janus and snap his neck. He forced himself to remain calm; clearly he had underestimated Janus’s abilities and until he could figure exactly how powerful he was, Marcus knew that he shouldn’t push his luck. He swallowed his anger and took a deep breath.

“You’ve been speaking of your plan for months and haven’t told us anything about it. We deserve a hint to what is going on at least.”

“After the way that you acted tonight I’m not sure that I can trust you to keep up your end of the bargain,” Janus sighed.

“Do not make me rethink this partnership,” Marcus responded, his voice low and with an edge to it. “We’ve come so far already.”

Janus considered what it was that Marcus was saying. He would have preferred that they wait until more of his plan was complete; which should only be a matter of days. Striking now wouldn’t necessarily cause him to delay too much, though he disliked appearing like he was giving in to Marcus and the rest of the vampires. Still, something had to be done to appease him before he took matters into his own hands and created an even more unstable situation.

“Very well,” Janus said, clasping his arms behind his back. “We’ll broadcast our intentions to withdraw entirely from the peace accords with the Guardians and I’ll show them and you what I have been working on.”

Gabriel woke up with a ringing headache. His skull felt like it was going to split itself open. The rest of his body didn’t feel much better; every inch of him ached and burned. The world slowly came back into focus and he became very aware of someone holding his hand. For a brief moment he thought that it might be Alex but when he finally managed to turn his head he looked down and saw that Ryan had a firm grasp of his hand.

A quick survey of the rest of the room told him that almost everyone was there, although most were passed out in various places. The only two that he couldn’t find were Everett and Cody, who he remembered had gone to London to look into getting some more information from the mages.

“Feeling better?”

Gabriel slowly turned his head to the other side and found Ethan spinning lazily around on a stool.

“What the hell happened? Where’s Sean?”

“Sean is fine,” Ethan said, sliding off the stool. “He’s got a concussion and needed some stitches but that’s it. Pretty lucky considering who attacked you.”

“Who was that?” Gabriel asked.

“His name was Thomas DeVore,” Ethan answered, pouring Gabriel a glass of water. “Apparently his father was not happy that we sort of blew up his facility.”

“Technically they blew it up,” Gabriel grunted in response. He took the offered water and drank it down, not realizing how thirsty he was.

“And as for what the hell happened, you’ll have to fill us in on that. Tony tried calling you and couldn’t get a hold of you, after what happened last time we sort of tracked you with our satellites. Tony went to make sure you were okay and ended up finding a ton of ashed vampires all over the locker room.”

Gabriel blushed.

“How did you do it?” Ethan asked.

“I wish I could tell you,” Gabriel sighed. “I was pretty sure I was done for when I felt this warmth start to spread throughout my body. When I looked down I could see these flames on my arms, surrounding them. After that every vampire I touched turned to ash.”

Ethan whistled. “Wow, you do realize that the last Phoenix that could do that was born over one hundred years ago.”

Gabriel looked down as Ryan slowly opened his eyes. At seeing that his friend was awake he smiled and gave Gabriel’s hand a squeeze before letting go. Gabriel had to try hard not to giggle like an idiot; he was still getting used to people showing that they cared that much about him.

“Good to see you among the land of the living again,” Ryan said. “How are you feeling?”

“A little like I was run over by a mac truck,” Gabriel muttered.

“Not surprising considering what you just went through.”

They all turned to see Imogene almost float into the room. She wore cream and light brown robes and had a stern look on her face. For a brief moment Gabriel thought that the look was directed at him but her face softened when she turned to look at him.

“I must speak to Gabriel alone.”

Everyone looked hesitant to leave and it was only when Gabriel finally nodded that they seemed to warm up to the idea. Ryan gave his hand another squeeze before moving toward the door with the rest of the Guardians in tow. Imogene waited until the door shut and then settled into the chair that Ryan had been sitting in at his bedside.

“What?” Gabriel asked.

“You embraced your power and it did not rule you. In fact, if you hadn’t there is a very good chance that you would be dead right now.”

“What’s your point?” Gabriel snapped. “I don’t even know what I did.”

“You harnessed the power within yourself like the Phoenixes of old,” Imogene smiled. “I haven’t seen that ability in many, many years.”

“Why did I pass out like that?”

“Harnessing heavenly fire is an exhausting practice,” Imogene explained. “Especially when you rely heavily on it in battle.”

“I still don’t even know how I did all that or if I could do it again.”

“You’ve never been properly trained,” Imogene responded. “That’s hardly a surprise since there are only a handful of people left on this Earth that have demonstrated the same abilities that you did. And none of them were this powerful when they were this young. You can do it again, in fact you will have to before this conflict with the vampires is over with.”

“I don’t know if I can,” Gabriel repeated. “Were you not listening when I told you I wasn’t even sure how I did it? And what good is it if I have to spend the next day recovering?”

“Were you not listening when I said that I could help you,” Imogene responded, her voice taking on a tone that indicated that Gabriel shouldn’t continue arguing with her. For someone that could look so frail and powerless she certainly could project an aura that made her someone you would not want to cross.

A light bulb went off in Gabriel’s head in that instant. “You can do it too.”

Imogene smiled and stood, smoothing out the front of her robe. “Your insight serves you well. When you have recovered come find me.”

The door burst open and Imogene was nearly run over by the stampeding Guardians that came into the room.

“Upstairs,” Ryan said, tossing scrub pants and a top to Gabriel. “Something big is going down; Jonathan wants our butts in the conference room.”

Gabriel gave him a confused look. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” Ryan said, helping him to his feet. “But Jonathan is freaking out. It’s not good when he freaks out.”

Gabriel quickly dressed and hobbled toward the door with the help of Ryan. He had no idea what it was that had their boss all stirred up. They made their way into the conference room, where a very concerned looking Jonathan and Aadesh were huddled around a tablet. Jonathan looked up as soon as the Guardians came into the room.