Ancient Guardians The Legacy of the Key (3 page)

The women spent the
entire evening at their apartment. Reece was happy to pick back up where she
left off, having girl talk with her friend. It was after midnight when they
finally headed for bed.

Reece found she was
so tired that she considered sleeping on the couch. She reluctantly got up from
it, clicked off the end table lamp, and walked into her room. She quickly
changed into a t-shirt and her flannel pajama bottoms, and crawled into bed.
She let her mind drift off to memories of Dad.

Reece lay in bed,
completely relaxed. She stared out of her window, watching light snowflakes
being pushed around like feathers in the wind. Her eyes fell closed and she was
almost asleep, when she heard a shuffling noise in her room. Trying not to
panic, she lay still, and scanned the room.

It was Dad,
standing in the corner of the room. He walked over to her bed, a bright smile
on his face. But there was something extremely odd about his eyes. They seemed
vacant, as if no one was home. Reece had to force herself to keep looking; the
little-girl part of her wanted to close her eyes and pull the covers over her
head.

But as he drew
closer, she began to experience an odd sensation of comfort. She pulled herself
up in bed, sitting and facing him.

His smile widened
and he spoke. “Reece, do not be afraid. I am not going to hurt you.”

“I know. I’m not
afraid. Dad, why are you here? Am I dreaming?”

He
smiled and sat on the edge of the bed beside her. “No, you are not dreaming.
It’s me, I am here.” He smiled and reached to touch her, but pulled back his
hand quickly, as if he had burned it on something.

“I’ve missed you so
much.” She spoke softly to him. “I have thought, over and over in my head,
about what I would say to you if I only had that second chance. How I would
tell you goodbye the right way, how I would thank you for all that you did for
me. So many things.” She sat there trying to gather her thoughts, but the weird
sense of calm was almost controlling them.

He stood up and
walked toward her window. Her confused eyes followed his every move. As he
stared out of the window, he said quietly, “Reece, my beautiful daughter, there
is no need for such talk. I am here now and that is all that matters for us. I
have been given, what you could call, a second chance; I choose to spend it
with you. I have been watching over you since my death, but I was not able to
manifest myself for you to see me. I have been with you this entire time.”

He continued to
stare out the window. Reece could not understand why he would not look at her
anymore, and her fear began to build again.

When he finally
turned around to face her, smiling, the strange calm returned to her. “Reece, I
must leave; you must rest. I return again, soon. Until then, my sweet young girl,
appreciate what we both have been given.”

His voice seemed
odd. It was her father’s voice, but there was something strange about his tone.
He stared deeply into her wide eyes. “Close your eyes, precious daughter, and
sleep.”

Overwhelming
exhaustion overcame her. She lay back and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

The next morning,
Reece woke in a state of panic. Had it really been her dad’s ghost?
Was
she losing her mind? She checked out her bedroom window to see if the previous
night’s snow had accumulated much. Just a sprinkling. Good. If there was any
day she needed a morning run, this was it.

She went to her
closet, put on her usual running attire, and then a warmer track suit over it.
She pulled on her running shoes, scribbled a note for Lori, and was out in the
crisp air fifteen minutes after waking.

She was that
thankful no one stopped her on the way out; she was in no state for
conversation. She needed to be alone and let the therapy of running take her
mind off everything.

She did some minor stretching
and then set off toward her favorite park. As her muscles loosened up, she
picked up her pace. At her favorite running path, she increased speed even
more. In the exhilaration of the run, she felt the tension from the night
before leave her body. Her heart was beating fast, but it was the strong beat
of exercise, not the flutter of fear. Her stomach unknotted itself; her leg
muscles, given a job to do, forgot to tremble.

It
had been nearly thirty minutes when she came to her usual resting place, an
open area with park benches. In warmer weather, the benches would be occupied,
but today they were empty. She slowly jogged toward them, bringing her heart
rate down in the process. She stopped and leaned over, hands on her knees, and
caught her breath. She luxuriated in the comparative calm of her mind.
Hallucinations weren’t always a bad thing. Maybe her subconscious was telling
her she could let go of Dad—or telling her that she could think of him without
pain.

She straightened up
and headed for a bench. Two other runners—or possibly walkers—were coming
toward her. They were men, dressed for running, but a surprising number of
casual strollers dressed that way. The sight of two men together made Reece a
bit apprehensive. As they came closer, she noticed that they were regular,
fairly homely men; not the two from the airplane and the restaurant.

Relieved, she
smiled at them.

When their paths
crossed, Reece was suddenly grabbed by the upper arm. Before she could react,
her other arm was gripped, too, and she was being moved rapidly along the
ground. She did not have time to react, as it was the last thing she expected
to happen. All she knew now was that she had to find a way out of the man’s
grasp.

She struggled to
free herself from the man’s tight grips. She was successful in freeing one of
her arms and reached out to his face. The man violently caught her loosed arm,
and brought her back into his secure clutches. Reece screamed and found his
hand tightly over her mouth. It was all too much; the man was faster than any
sudden move she could manage. She fought as hard as she could, tried to scream,
kick, scratch, but was unsuccessful. The harder she fought, the weaker she
became. She had nothing left, and the man knew it.

One of the men
spoke into her ear. “We were paid a pretty high price to capture you. You must
be one important person.”

“Let’s get her out
of here,” said the other. “This was too easy.”

Just as Reece felt
she might pass out from terror, she heard a deep voice call out, “Let the woman
go.”

  She had never
heard the voice before, but when she saw its owner, somehow she wasn’t
surprised. Coming off the path toward her, was the dark haired stranger from
the airport. The mysterious man was sharply dressed, in a dark suit and
overcoat. His eyes were fierce and intently focused on the man holding her.

As he approached
their location with an air of authority and command, Reece felt a twinge of
hope that this mysterious man might in fact, save her. His features darkened.
“Release her…now!” His voice seemed to boom, even though he had not shouted.

He continued to
approach them, confidently and slowly, with a calculating look in his eye.

“This isn’t any of
your business!” One of the attackers shouted out to him. “You would be wise to
get out of here, now!”

The man ignored
him, and again, ordered the captors to let Reece go.

“Get
rid of him!” One said to the other.

One of the men
holding her released his hold, pulled out his knife, and lunged aggressively
toward the man from the airport. Without any effort, the dark-haired man
disarmed his attacker and left him on the ground, writhing in pain. He moved so
quickly that Reece had no idea how or what he had done to defend himself from
the attack. She used this opportunity to wrench away from the man who held her,
but he twisted her arm painfully.

The mysterious man
turned his darkened gaze to the man restraining Reece. “You will join your
friend,” he said, lowly, “if you don’t release her, this instant.”

The man grabbed his
knife and held it to Reece’s throat. “You don’t know who you’re messing with.
Back off, or I
will
kill her.”

The familiar man’s
eyes narrowed, his expression was now lethal. Then he did—something. He went
through a series of movements that Reece couldn’t follow. Suddenly, two men lay
on the ground, and Reece was in the arms of the man who had saved her. She
looked up into vibrant blue eyes. She didn’t know what to say to him.

“Are you all
right?” he asked, unsmiling.

She nodded. He
helped her to regain her balance, and suddenly looked back at the trees behind
her. His face darkened. “I must get you out of here.”

“What?” said Reece,
“What’s going on?”

“You’re being
followed.”

“What?”
Brilliant,
Reece.

His face was
extremely grave, and his eyes kept returning to the trees at the edge of the
clearing. “Come,” he said.

Reece told herself
she had no option but to trust him. It wasn’t true, but it was true that she
did trust him, with some instinctive, animal trust.

“Okay,” she
answered softly.

Her legs were still
searching for strength. He drew her arm into his, and led her at a rapid pace
away from the trees.

“Why do you keep
staring back into the trees?”

“Someone is waiting
for you there, and I just complicated his plans. You need to get safely out of
the park, this instant.”

Reece felt her
heart racing again. “You mean this was planned?”

He kept her walking
them toward the opposite side of the park at a quick pace. “Explanations will
have to wait. For now, I need you to trust me, and allow me to protect you.”

Reece felt tears welling
up in her eyes; she softly spoke only to herself. “Why me…why now…what’s going
on?”

He looked down at
her. “You’ve been through quite a lot recently. I’m sorry for that.”

“What do you mean?
How would you know what I have been through?”

  He continued
walking them at a brisk pace. “It’s my job to know these things.”

She froze in place,
forcing the young man to stop with her. She looked up at him questioningly.
“What are you talking about? Know what things?”

He looked down into
her eyes sympathetically. “Miss Bryant, I know you have a lot of questions, and
for those, I’ll give you answers. Right now is not the time.”

Reece’s eyes filled
with tears. She swallowed and asked, “How do you know my name?”

He
turned down to her; his eyes seemed to be searching for something in hers. He
exhaled softly. “As I said, it’s my job.”

He resumed their
walk and headed off the path and uphill, toward and through a grove of mixed
trees.

“Could you at least
tell me who you are, then?”

Looking straight
ahead and forcing them into a faster walking pace he answered, “My name? I must
have forgotten my manners; forgive me.” He looked down at her, but seemed
distracted. “My name is Levi.”

The trees were
becoming denser. It was obvious they were nowhere near the park. She had no
idea where they were, and began to have second thoughts. She stopped dead,
forcing him to stop with her. “How do you know my name?”

He sighed
impatiently. “Tell me, Miss Bryant, do you believe in ghosts?”

Reece stared at him
in alarm, her mouth open. She swallowed hard, and her answer, when it came, was
a very soft and questioning, “No.”

“Good, because they
do not exist; at least, not the way you might imagine them to. Last night in
your room—that was not your father.”

“No.” Not Dad. She
had known that, though, hadn’t she?

“Reece, you’ll get
the answers you seek. I would love nothing more than to give you those answers
right now.” Levi looked back along their path. “Right now you must make a
choice. You can choose to seek your answers from the one who is pursuing us, or
you can trust that I’ll give them to you when we’re safely out of his reach.”
He stared somberly at her and waited.

Reece returned his
gaze speculatively. Did she trust him? She wasn’t terrified of him, as she had
been of the men who’d grabbed her. But she also didn’t feel the unnatural calm
that the apparition of her father had seemed to turn on at will. She was
scared, and she knew she had reason to be. If Levi were capable of forcing him
to trust her, he hadn’t shown it. Nor was he trying to intimidate her, though
he surely could have done so.

She looked up at
him and nodded.

They resumed their
quick pace through the woods. The thick clouds had begun to drop light
snowflakes. Reece felt a chill coming over her. Reflexively, she brought her
free hand over the exposed hand that she had resting on his arm. She absently
leaned closer into him trying to stay warm. Noticing immediately, he covered
her hands with one of his.

She looked up at
him. “Are we almost there?” She asked as they reached a clearing.

“Yes, just a few
more feet in this direction. My cousin, Harrison, is waiting.”