Warden (Elemental Paladins Book 1) (2 page)

Perhaps the men were coming to her aid or perhaps they were coming to help hold her down. Either way, she had no intention of involving them or anyone else. She could take care of herself and pathetic menfolk like these were child’s play in comparison to that which stalked her.

She opted to go with efficiency rather than pizzazz and punched him in the throat. She followed through with a generous kick to the balls and what do you know? Poor Bounce didn’t bounce. The sound of gasping breaths were quickly replaced by a high pitched animal whine as Bounce toppled heavily to the side, one hand at his throat and the other cupping his two favourite, but now abused, toys.

Shaking her head in resignation, she peeled a twenty out of her pocket and threw it on the bar. “Sorry about the mess.” She tilted her head towards the now wheezing mass on the floor. A snort was the only response she received as she bent down to retrieve her pack. The beaten up bag held almost all of her earthly possessions and she slung it over her shoulder as she made her way to the door. As reprieves went, it had been a short but entertaining one.

Constantly aware of her surroundings, she registered the sound of several chairs scuffing the hard floor as they were pushed back from a table. She heard the thump of boots on worn wood even as she allowed the bar door to slam behind her. She would like to think it was just coincidence and the handsome trio just happened to be leaving at the same time. But she doubted it. She wasn’t that lucky.

TWO

She had almost made it to the densely populated bushland behind the pub when they caught up to her. When she had been forced to move on once again she had chosen this region because of its natural beauty. She had travelled all over the world in an attempt to outrun her pursuers. She had seen so much magnificence and wonder in the lands and the seas but nothing quite like the pristine coastline of Australia. The beaches were made up of soft golden sand you could actually walk bare foot on, and the oceans were filled with an array of majestic creatures. The surrounding bush was home to some of the most lethal critters on earth – as well as some of the cuddliest. It was all such a wonderful contradiction.

This particular stretch of the south coast had always been a favourite of hers. When she had awoken on the mean streets of Sydney as a teenager with no memory, no name and just the clothes on her back, she had known only one thing; that the concrete world of cars and noise was a suffocating weight. Using only instinct as a guide, she had fled and found herself about four hours south. With nothing but the ocean to her left and trees to her right, she had felt a sense of homecoming. To this day she couldn’t figure out why. There had been nothing and no one she had recognised, but the environment had given her peace and that had been the most important thing at the time. It was also why she had decided to return now. She needed the security she had felt all those years ago. She hadn’t ventured back this way in over twenty years because she didn’t want to be responsible for the destruction that inevitably haunted her every step. But two weeks ago she had been in a quaint little village outside of Budapest when they had found her once again. The resulting fight had left the tiny township devastated, she was stretched so thin her hands wouldn’t stop shaking for three days and she could barely function through the headache and the ensuing nausea. She needed rest. She craved solace … and now she also wanted more chocolate. It appeared she was doomed to be disappointed though if the three men behind her were any indication.

She shrugged off her backpack and placed it on the ground at her feet so her movements wouldn’t be hindered. She then turned and was met with a solid wall of testosterone.
My, oh my …
they were even more pretty up close. The one with the hazel eyes sported a close-cropped do to his thick brown hair. It held a slight wave and she wondered if he kept it short deliberately in order to hide curls. Why men felt the need to do that she would never understand. Curls were sexy! The other two were rockin’ the just-got-out-of-bed look with messy locks of blonde and auburn. The look in their eyes was just as intense as they peered down at her from irises of blue and green respectively. And a long way they had to look down too! She was somewhat vertically challenged, topping only five foot three in heels. Although it sucked at music concerts, it did make it easy to squeeze into tight places when she was on the run. The mountains in front of her all topped six feet easy which was actually a happy coincidence. She had always loved mountain climbing!

“Where are your paladins?”

“Huh?”
Great!
She rolled her eyes at herself. Apparently she now sounded like Bounce!

Hazel eyes narrowed at her as muscled arms crossed an impressive chest. “Your paladins! How could they allow you to go out on your own like this?”

“Firstly, my what? Paladins? And secondly,
allow?
Nobody
allows
me to do anything! I’m a grown-arse woman!” Clearly not the response they were expecting if the number of raised eyebrows was anything to go by. Even the deep frowns couldn’t mar their manly splendour. It just made her want to rub the lines away and find out if their tanned skin was as warm as it looked.

“Which Order are you from? I don’t recognise you.” The designated speaker asked. The more he talked, the more confused she became. What the hell was he talking about?
Excellent question ninety nine!

“What the hell are you talking about?” More with the frowning and the covert looks. “Really? Again with the silent communication? Whatever. Listen, it’s been a long day already and as fun as this was … I’m out.” A tanned hand on hers halted her attempt to retrieve her bag. In addition to the solid warmth his hand provided she also felt a distinct zap, almost like a tiny electric shock. She could have sworn she felt the earth rumble minutely beneath her feet and she raised her startled eyes to meet the green ones of the so-far silent man with the reddish hair.

“We’re not wrong here, Darius. She’s definitely a Warden.” He said.

“But what is a warden doing out here alone? Maybe she’s gone off the reservation?” She had no clue what that meant, but the way blue eyes said it made her think it wasn’t a good thing.

A rustle in the trees caused them all to glance to the left. She watched in rising trepidation as three sets of hands reached swiftly behind their backs. She swallowed hard; they were all armed which meant this shit was gettin’ real. Confident in her butt-kicking abilities she might be, but stupid she was not. No way did she want to pit herself against these men. More rustling preceded a set of soft brown eyes and leathery wings from the top limbs of the Eucalypt tree. The fruit bat clutched half a pear in its tiny claws as it chewed determinedly. She felt more than saw the men around her relax but couldn’t herself. It was a little late for the flying mammal to be out, and was that a chill on the breeze she could feel? The men seemed more interested in puzzling out the conundrum that was her than to notice such nuances but she had learned to listen when the world spoke – no matter how indirect. Fingers rudely snapping in front of her face redirected her focus.

“You really have no idea what we’re talking about do you?”

She shook her head, “Nope, I really don’t. And I really don’t care either. I have enough crazy in my life. Trust me!” As if her own words had conjured them, the shadows beneath the trees started lengthening, reaching out with dark fingers to obscure the land. Clouds rushed overhead, blocking out the sun in a seemingly freak storm as the wind blew a gale. It was freaky all right, but it wasn’t a storm.

It was them.

They were here.

She reached into her boot for her Joy. Her blade was the one thing she never left in her pack. It was with her always. She even took it into the shower and to bed at night. Joy had saved her life more times than she could count. She was readying herself with an explanation as to why she would be carrying an eight inch dagger in her knee-high boots but found herself blocked into a tight triangle of three broad backs instead. Were they protecting her? They couldn’t be. There was no way they could possibly understand what was coming. Nobody else could see her stalkers. She had never been able to figure out why most people didn’t see them, she just knew they didn’t. Hence, her numerous trips to the aforementioned mental institutes. They always rolled in with an unnatural storm and people were always more fascinated by the abrupt display from Mother Nature than they were by the pale spectres hiding in their midst.

“Stay behind us.” The order was bellowed over a vast shoulder, all his attention seemingly focused on the ivory figure slowly creeping forward.

She was incredulous, “You can see them?”

Mr Stoic gave one sharp nod of his head, “I can see them,” he flicked a glance in her direction before barking the command once again, “Stay behind us.”

Usually she didn’t tolerate orders well, but given that this order involved a front row ticket to perhaps the best arse in history, she decided to heed the command. As the three men in front of her took up various practiced fighting positions, she tilted her head to the side and watched three sets of arse cheeks flex and clench.
Fuck yeah
, she’d stay behind them! And with that happy thought, the phantoms descended.

THREE

They were like a flock of morbid seagulls, circling and swooping on the men with their noxious claws, jaws stretched wide in an awful parody of a grin. They were silent, always so silent, in their lethality and for some reason that always creeped her out the most. The open gaping mouths combined with the determined lifeless eyes and the deadly precision of their attacks spoke of a purpose and a kind of horrific glee. Yet they never uttered a sound; no taunts, no laughter, no screams. They never responded when she tried to reason with them nor did they appear to feel pain when she kicked their butts! Well, almost never, she admitted to herself, but now certainly wasn’t the time for those convoluted thoughts. No, these strange creatures that she had dubbed ‘phantoms’ because, hey, what else could they be? They stalked, attacked and vanished in distressing silence just as quickly as they appeared, with no rhyme or reason that she had ever been able to identify. She only knew they hunted her no matter how far she ran or how long she hid. Her whole life had been reduced to dodging, hiding and fighting. She had no time for friends or relationships. She had so needed this little slice of paradise from her youth, but it was clearly not meant to be. There would be no time for fun or time for work and she had desperately needed to work. In fact, that twenty she parted with back at the bar had been one of her last.

With no time to stop and write or draw, she hadn’t been able to get a novel out in over a year and she knew even her most loyal of fans were beginning to give up on her. Not that it really mattered, she thought bitterly. She was too scared to access her savings account for the royalties anyway just in case the phantoms were somehow tracking her that way. She had no clue how that could be possible, it’s not like they could stroll into a bank or anything, but she wasn’t willing to take the risk. She had lost many a good friend over the years as well as many innocent strangers and her conscience was about to buckle under the guilt. In fact, she wasn’t sure what she would do if any of these hunks were hurt because of her. Although, they did seem to have the situation well in hand, she admitted, refocusing all her attention where it should be. The strange men were obviously highly skilled as she had suspected and it seemed as if this wasn’t their first rodeo with the phantoms either. She eyed them appraisingly and couldn’t help but appreciate their technique. She knew just how much discipline it took to hone one’s body into a weapon. And weapons they obviously were. They were like poetry in motion. The lethal grace with which they wielded their own strangely shaped blades was almost hypnotising. They were clearly a team of some sort going by the way they seemed to anticipate each other’s actions. When one feinted to the left, one would strike from the right; one would defend low while the other attacked high. They were confident and assured of their abilities and clearly trusted each other. They fought back to back, and she noticed they were always careful to keep her solidly between two muscled rears at all times. That was at least until one of the grotesque creatures suddenly sniffed the air like a hound catching a scent and turned it’s roiling black eyes her way.

She shuddered under the hungry gaze, knowing what would come next if it were to actually make contact with her. These things fought viciously and would battle to the death with a seemingly endless supply of stamina – but only after they were engaged first. They never delivered the first blow but a clash was always inevitable because she would never let them come in peace. As much as she loathed to partake in the nightmarish violence, the thought of what they would do to her otherwise was even more sickening.

Past experience had taught her to strike fast and to strike hard without mercy. Gripping the well-worn hilt of her perfectly balanced tanto sword she went for expediency over decency and let her shoulders and knees go lax as she executed a smooth roll, coming up behind the advancing spectre. She slashed quickly in two even lines aiming directly behind the knee caps. The phantom went down hard and although it made no sound, its mouth widened in a silent scream and its eyes glared mute accusations. She always found the whole experience deafening. Swallowing back bile, she swung efficiently again and severed the head with one blow. It should have been near impossible to cut through muscle and bone like that – especially for a woman of her height and stature – but as expected the pale head detached easily from the skeletal body. It then shattered into a shower of ash, forcing her to retreat hastily or risk becoming covered in the grisly soot. She had no idea why but they always turned into something different before being picked up by the wind and disappearing into the atmosphere. She could feel the shudder of the earth beneath her feet, the trembling from the desecration of the kill even as the last of the smoky particles floated away. They were joined by fragments of leaves, droplets of water, and even small insects and she knew the Buff Brigade had successfully dispatched the remainder of the phantoms. Not sure what to expect, she kept her grip on Joy tight and her muscles relaxed as she turned to face the music.