The Guardian Chronicles 2: Dark Horizon (18 page)

“He’s not half bad, is he?” Everett commented, as they continued down the hall.

“Don’t you start,” Ethan snapped, easing open the door to another empty room. “I already said that he didn’t completely suck.”

“Such high praise,” Everett grunted.

Everett shrugged the comment away. When they were convinced that the floor was empty, they moved to the bedroom. Once again, Everett created another glowing glyph on the door that reduced it to sawdust in seconds. They stepped into the room, weapons drawn. There didn’t appear to be any sign of Daniel, although the bed did appear to be disturbed like someone had been sleeping in it.

Ethan caught movement to his left and ducked mere seconds before a shotgun blast tore into the wall behind them both. They hit the ground as another blast splintered drywall and wood. Everett pointed toward the bathroom where they both could barely see the barrel of a 12 gauge sticking out. Ethan made a yanking motion with his hand. Everett smiled and then with a wave of his hand, pulled the weapon from Daniel.

“We can stand around here and do this all night,” Ethan called. “Or you could come out here and face us like a man.”

A man emerged from the bathroom, rather pale and scrawny looking. He had a receding hairline, somewhat of a pot belly, and didn’t look at all l
ike someone that could inspire his apparent legions of followers. Everett and Ethan exchanged rather confused looks.

“You’re the idiot in charge of this outfit?” Ethan asked.

“Kids!” Daniel snapped. “And a...”

Before he could get a word out, Everett made another gesture, this time sending Daniel flying up against the wall, pinned by an invisible force.

“I’d be careful what I said from now on,” Ethan cautioned, holstering his weapon. He walked slowly toward Daniel, surveying the rather plush accommodations. When he was within arm’s length of the pinned man, Everett let him drop to the floor.

“You’re kids!” Daniel growled again. “Stupid freaking kids!”

“Oh, he’s very astute,” Everett said, rolling his eyes. “How on earth did these guys get to be a legitimate threat again?”

“First off, we’re teenagers...we have more angst then kids,” Ethan said, as he crossed his arms over his chest. “And second off, we managed to break into your compound and subdue your loyal guards without even breaking a sweat. All we want to do is talk to you.”

“You were sent by the government-“

Daniel did not get a chance to finish his sentence; Ethan’s fist caught him across the face with a right cross, sending him to the floor. He reached down, grabbed him by the front of his shirt and tossed him not so gently onto the bed.

“Do we really look like we are from the government,” Ethan snapped. “You’re starting to irritate me and I think we both agree that’s bad idea.”

“You can’t make me talk,” Daniel snarled. “What are you going to do, torture me?”

“Is torturing in the mission brief?” Ethan asked, as he turned toward Everett.

“We were just told to get information,” Everett shrugged. “They really didn’t specify how.”

“We won’t start with torture,” Ethan said, starting to pace around the room. “But let’s start off with something that we know is near and dear to you. Marissa, Tony, Elise, you get the charges in place?”

“Ready to go when you are,” Marissa’s responded.

“By all means, blow it,” Ethan smiled.

Seconds later the windows of the large mansion shook and bright flash illuminated the room before a brief moment followed by the thundering sound of high explosives detonating. Daniel started to sweat and looked around nervously, clearly unsure of what was about to come. After all, it wasn’t every day that his home was invaded by teenage commandos.

“That was the five million in crack cocaine you had sitting in your warehouse,” Ethan said, as he stopped and looked out the window. Another explosion echoed through the compound, shaking the walls of the house.

“And that was your arms collection,” Everett added. “Don’t worry; we know where all your other warehouses are. We’ve left enough out there for a nice long conviction on multiple c
ounts.”

Daniel started to look even more nervous.

Something broke through the window, causing Daniel to yelp. Everett and Ethan looked over to see an arrow placed perfectly in between Daniel’s legs, barely missing the crotch of his pants. They both chuckled at the response; Cody always did have near perfect timing.

“We can keep going on like this,” Ethan shrugged. “Or you can save yourself some trouble and tell us what we want to know.”

“He’ll kill me!” Daniel snapped.

“And you don’t think that I won’t?” Ethan asked, cocking an eyebrow.

As if to illustrate his point another arrow pierced the window, burying it’s self in the mattress millimeters from Daniel’s head.

“Talk,” Ethan commanded. “Now.”

“He approached us about a year ago,” Daniel finally said.

“Who’s he?” Ethan asked.

“I don’t know his name...”

Another arrow flashed through the window, this one imbedding it’s self in the mattress on the other side of Daniel’s head.

“You do realize that eventually he’ll run out of things to shoot around, right?” Ethan asked.

“He called himself Sainte-Pierre, Jean Sainte-Pierre...”

“And what did he offer you?”

As Daniel talked, Everett looked down at the small screen mounted on is gauntlet. Marissa sent him a text indicating they had downloaded the contents of his computer network. Everett responded and then looked up, nodding to Ethan.

“He offered us weapons,” Daniel said. “Lots and lots of weapons, some stuff that we didn’t even know existed. And he offered us new bio-tech and canceled government experiments.”

“Bio-tech?” Everett asked.

“I don’t know what it was really,” Daniel shrugged. “Only that it made people faster and better soldiers.”

“What kind of weapons did he offer you?”

Daniel looked between the two Ethan and Everett before answering again. “Mostly normal stuff...RPG’s, AK-47’s, ammunition, and assorted other stuff.”

“What kind of canceled experiments?”

“I don’t know, honest!”

“You do realize that if you are lying that we’ll figure it out, right?”

“How did you contact him?” Everett asked.

“He always contacted us,” Daniel answered. “He never let us contact him, he was paid in off-shore accounts set up by our finance guys.”

“You have finance guys?” Ethan asked, his brows going up in surprise.

“We’ve got the account information,” Everett said, looking up from his gauntlet. “I doubt there is much more that he can tell us. We have his whole network on downloaded now.”

“You can’t do that!”

“Daniel,” Ethan said, as he pulled the older man to his feet. “I think that you’ll find right now, there isn’t a lot that I can’t do. We destroyed your weapons and drugs. In the morning, we’re going to let the FBI know everything that we know, minus the weird stuff. You can turn yourself in or take your chances on the run from both the FBI and your buddies with the weapons out there.”

“They’ll kill me!” Daniel practically squealed. “And the FBI won’t ever let me see the light of day!”

Ethan gave an annoyed grunt before firing several stingers into Daniel, knocking him out cold. Without warning, the window on the other side of the bed shattered as a body flew through it, rolling back into a standing position.

“What the hell happened to you?” Ethan snapped.

Ryan shook his head, sending glass and debris falling off him.

“You know when you said that there weren’t any demons here?”

“Demons?”

“Look out there!”

The three Guardians ran to the window, looking out at the compound below. Making its way around the area was a demon, a fairly powerful one by the looks of it. It stood on four legs, each one as big around as Ethan and a body the size of a rhino that was rippling with muscle. The head was a mass of writhing tentacles, at least six of them that darted out several meters and then recoiled back, stabbing through most anything that it came into contact with.

“We appear to have missed one,” Everett said.

“Really,” Ryan grunted. “Hadn’t noticed.”

“Where in the hell did that thing come from?” Ethan asked, as they sprinted from the room.

“Just appeared out of nowhere,” Ryan responded.

The three of them bounded down the stairs and outside, where the rest of the Guardians were already attempting to deal with the demon. Cody landed next to them in a perfect crouch. The archer popped up and fired a glowing silver/blue arrow, burying the shot in the demon’s hide. The demon let out a roar, tentacles lashing back toward where the arrow as sticking out of its skin.

Marissa’s glowing whip lashed out, leaving deep scorch marks as it seared through the thick flesh. The demons responded by sending her bouncing along the ground with a blow from a tentacle. A burst from Tony’s rifle managed to distract it long enough for Marissa to get back to safety.

“I thought you said there weren’t supposed to be any demons here!” Elise snapped. She pulled her pistols from their holsters and unloaded a few shots into the demon. Of course, the glowing blue bullets didn’t appear to have any effect on it, other than to annoy it more.

“Looks like we have to do this the old fashioned way,” Ethan grunted.

“We can’t get close to that thing without being smashed,” Gabriel snapped.

“Oh come on now,” Ethan smiled. “Where is your sense of adventure?”

“Dying is not what I call fun!” Gabriel retorted.

“Down!” Ryan shouted.

The demon brought all its tentacles together, unleashing a blast of pink/white energy that rippled outward in a cone, ripping apart several windows and slicing a tree in half.

“What the hell was that?” Gabriel yelped.

“Azura demon,” Ethan grunted, getting back to his feet. “Always thought that it was myth that they could do that.”

The demon unleashed another blast, this time striking a parked SUV. The vehicle flipped sideways, smashing into the house and exploding on impact.

“I’d say that it’s no myth,” Gabriel gulped.

As they spoke both Everett and Ryan had moved off to counter the demon, dodging incoming tentacle attacks in an attempt to get in close. Cody was still staying on the periphery, unloading a barrage of fire; most of them were arrows that had been tipped with small explosive warheads, probably due to the fact that he had a limited number of blessed metal tips. No doubt he was waiting for the perfect shot. Sadly, the demon didn’t appear to be willing to present such a target.

“Are you suggesting that we just run up and stab it?” Gabriel asked.

“Unless you happen to have another idea?” Ethan inquired.

Gabriel turned back around and watched as Everett unleashed a massive burst of telekinetic energy in the form of rippling white sphere that slammed into the demon, causing it to stagger slightly. That bought time for Tony and Ryan to leap onto the demon’s back; slashing and stabbing away, leaving smoldering wounds were their blades penetrated the flesh.

“Come on!” Ethan yelled.

Gabriel and Ethan took off at a run toward the demon, which was now thrashing about. The demon unleashed another blast of energy, ripping through the courtyard wall. Seconds later, its whole body glowed and its skin discharged a massive pulse of energy, sending Tony and Ryan tumbling off. Both of them hit the ground, smoking curling from their armor.

Gabriel was starting to think that his first mission out might be his last, as least the way that things were starting to shape up. He charged in toward the demon with Ethan, ignoring the nagging feeling that he was making a mistake.

The tentacles flashed toward them, intending to spear them through their armor. Gabriel wasn’t sure if they could actually penetrate the armor and he wasn’t anxious to find out, he spun away from one of the muscular appendages as it speared toward his chest. The blessed metal blade sliced through the slithering appendage, sending part of it smoking to the ground.

Gabriel looked to his left, where Ethan’s dual blades flashed silver/blue, slicing his way through ano
ther tentacle. The demon roared and then charged forward.

“I think we made it angry!” Gabriel yelled.

“Thanks captain obvious!”

Both Gabriel and Ethan dove to the side, avoiding the demon as it ran past them. For as large as it was it was a lot quicker on its feet than Gabriel would have thought. It managed to skid to a stop before plowing completely into a shed near the barn.

“How do you kill those things?” Gabriel asked.

“Someone hasn’t been doing their studying,” Ethan said.

“Shut up Ethan,” Elise snapped.

“And you told me I wasn’t allowed to bring along lots of explosives,” Cody grumbled, after he jogged over to them.

“We can’t even - duck!”

They all hit the ground on Gabriel’s warning as the beam of destructive energy arced through the air where they had been standing before. Gabriel would really have to review his Codex when they got back; this demon probably wasn’t the only one that had a nasty surprise like the energy blasts. Next time he intended to be ready for it, well that was assuming that he survived for there to be a next time.