Lizzy Ford (6 page)

“I hate this part,” Gerry muttered.

The Guardian Xander held suspended didn’t move and squeezed her eyes closed. He lowered his head to nuzzle her neck, loving the smell of a woman’s skin almost as much as he did the taste of her blood. Normally, he didn’t dampen the pain for the Guardians, who felt the full length of his four inch incisors enter their necks. But he had a soft spot for women anyway and granted what little mercy he was willing to.

She jerked as his fangs sank into her neck. A few feet away, Gerry flinched. Xander drank as much as he did from male Guardians. Easing her pain cost him nothing, but he wasn’t about to go hungry.

She slid into unconsciousness after a few minutes, and her body went limp. He wrapped an arm around her but continued to feed. Her heart started to slow.

Xander withdrew, sealed the wound with a flick of his tongue and licked his fangs free of every drop of blood he could. The rich smell of blood was in his nose, the taste and scent almost as good as fucking.

He lifted the Guardian over his shoulder and faced Gerry.

“I really wish they would listen,” Gerry said, shaking his head. He let an uneasy smile slip free.

“It only takes once.”

“Is she alive enough to Travel?”

“Take her and find out.”

Gerry cursed. Xander grinned. The station chief almost lost a second Guardian Xander drained close to death and learned the hard lesson that the near-dead should never Travel.

“It’s a long walk home,” Gerry said. “I guess I should be grateful you don’t kill them.”

Xander said nothing. They walked around the building to the front, and he passed off the unconscious woman to Gerry.

“Why don’t you kill them?” he asked, grunting as he shifted her over his shoulder.

“I have nothing to gain by it,” Xander said with a shrug.

“Can’t teach that lesson to the rest of those monsters you created?” Gerry asked.

“G’night, Gerry.”

The Guardian sighed and turned, starting the long walk towards LA. Xander watched him for a short while before returning to the beach to finish his Tai Chi.

He just slid into the zone when his phone rang.    Xander snatched it.

“Hey, X, we need your unique set of services.” The caller was none other than Dusty, the leader of the White God’s vampire killing operations for the Western Hemisphere.

“Ask Jule to moderate,” Xander replied.

“Jonny requested you. All three of them are locked up on this one, and the Watchers are getting pissy with us.”

“When the fuck did I become the peacekeeper?” Xander asked with no real heat. He had no loyalties to any of the Gods, a fact that rendered him useful to all three of them when they were in pissing contests.

“I’ve got Cuban coffee. There’s nothing wrong with being universally hated,” Dusty added, amusement in his voice.

Of all the White God’s brothers, Dusty was the one most likely to understand Xander’s position. The former head of the assassin corps for the White God was revered and feared among the Guardians. His wife was also Cuban and made a damn strong cup of coffee.

“Alright.” Xander grunted in response. He started up the beach towards his condo.

“Short summary: Damian wants to hunt down the Others. Jonny wants the sole existing Tracker back, and Darian wants to kill the Watchers. The Watchers aren’t too keen about Darian’s idea.” Dusty summarized.

“Be there in ten.” Xander hung up, irritated at the constant interruptions this night.

Chapter Two

Jessi staggered under the grocery bags filling her arms. The elevator in her building was half-broken again. It worked, but it stopped a foot short of her floor, which made her load even more precarious. She stepped up and out of the elevator.  Her back foot caught on the lip of the doorway, and she stumbled. One bag toppled then another. With a sigh, she knelt and released all the bags. Her eyes went to the door of her apartment, two down on the right. She grabbed what she could carry and went to her small home.

“Hey, guys, I could use a hand with the groceries!” she called as she entered. She stacked the bags on the couch.

Silence.

“Please put this stuff away!”

Irritated with the two teenage cousins for whom she was an appointed guardian, she left the apartment to recover the rest of the bags. It was close to seven on a Sunday morning, which meant they were probably still asleep. When she entered again, the elder of the two cousins was putting stuff in the fridge.

“Brandon, you have to take stuff out of the bags,” she said and kicked the door closed behind her.

“Whatever.” His hair was mussed, and his state of dress – T-shirt and pajama pants – indicated he’d just woken up.

“Every week, it’s like it’s the first time you’ve ever seen a grocery bag,” she said. Despite her agitation, she ruffled the eighteen-year-old’s hair fondly. “Get out. I’ll do it.”

“But I’m hungry.”

“You can wait ten minutes.”

The moody teen sighed but obediently left the kitchen and sat on the couch. All three of them inherited the gray eyes of their grandmother, though Brandon and his sister Ashley had dark brown tresses whereas Jessi’s hair was dirty blonde.

“Wake your sister up,” Jessi called.

“I just sat down.”

“Omigod, Brandon. How can someone so lazy be so skinny?”

He mumbled something as he went to the hallway leading to the bedrooms. Jessi put everything away then glanced at the clock. She had an hour until she had to be at her weekend job. Raising two teenagers in a place as expensive as southern California was not easy. She made do with two jobs, but there was no way to save money for their colleges.

And no personal life for her. She found herself yearning for friends again. At the bistro where she was a weekend waitress, she saw the same friends meeting up for coffee every Saturday.

Her movement stilled. The last time she’d hung out with anyone was at a PTA meeting. Did mandatory interaction with other parents count as friends?

“She’s not here,” Brandon said.

“What do you mean? Of course she’s here,” she replied. “Did you check the office?”

“Yeah. I texted her. She went out last night.” Brandon’s protectiveness was in his voice. As the elder brother, he took his role seriously, even if it was the only thing he put any effort into. “Didn’t you check last night when you got home?”

“I pulled a twelve hour shift, and you guys aren’t supposed to leave the house without telling me,” Jessi snapped. “Where did she go?”

“I dunno.”

Alarm was starting to form within Jessi. The one night she’d been too tired to check on her cousins before bed …

“Where’s my phone, Brandon?”

“I’ll call it,” he replied, accustomed to helping her find her phone, keys and wallet when she was too tired to recall where she put them after work.

The familiar ringtone drew them to the couch. Brandon shoved a hand between the cushions and fished out the cell.

“Yeah, I don’t remember sitting down,” Jessi sighed. “Yesterday was awful.”

“You’ve got like, twenty messages,” Brandon said with a frown. “What if she needed a ride or something?”

“If I don’t know you’re going out, I don’t know you need a ride!” she said, worried. She listened to the first message.

“
Jessi, this is Laurie again, the nurse overseeing your cousin’s care. Please give me a call as soon as you can
.”

Jessi’s worry turned to panic. She listened to the next two messages, also from Laurie, and all but dropped the phone.

“What’s wrong?” Brandon demanded. “Jessi! What’s wrong?”

“Your sister’s in the hospital,” she said at last.

Surprise crossed Brandon’s face. He recovered faster and snatched her purse, rummaging through it before he dropped it on the couch.

“Where are your keys, Jessi?”

His raised voice pulled her out of her stupor. She searched her memory for where she might’ve dumped the keys last night. She’d been a zombie and took the bus to the store this morning. Brandon lifted the couch cushions while she crossed to her bedroom and pulled the jeans she wore yesterday out of the dirty laundry with shaking hands. The keys were in the pocket.

“Brandon, I found them!” she yelled.

“What did they say is wrong?” he asked as she emerged into the living area again. He yanked the door into the hallway open.

“They didn’t,” Jessi said. “Just said to call or come as soon as possible.”

“Why couldn’t you keep your phone with you?” Brandon asked angrily.

“Why didn’t someone tell me she went out?”

They rushed out of the apartment building to her beat up car. Brandon peppered her with questions, until she finally gave him her cell and let him listen to the messages. She pulled onto the crowded street and drove with barely contained patience through the residential areas before flooring the car when she reached the highway.

Jessi’s head was spinning too much for her to register much of the world. Somehow, they made it to the hospital and managed to track down her cousin’s room. She stepped into the room and saw Ashley in the hospital bed, an unwelcome memory surfacing at the sight of the girl.

Jessi was reminded of the last time she saw the mother of the cousins, a day before her death. Ashley was a spitting image of her mother: brown curls, blue-gray eyes, a willowy, graceful body. In the middle of the white bed, she looked small. She was dressed in a hospital gown, the silver
A
charm she received for her birthday resting at her neck. The similarities between the girl’s appearance and the memory of her deceased mother made Jessi nauseous.

This is my fault!
Jessi screamed at herself silently.

“Ashley.” Jessi was crying by the time she reached her cousin. “Oh, god, are you okay?”

“I’m okay.” Ashley’s voice was groggy.

Jessi hugged her the best she could, relieved, and stepped back. One of Ashley’s shoulders was bandaged, and her skin was pale. Jessi smoothed the hair away from her face.

“You look awful when you cry,” Ashley said with a smile.

Brandon clutched his hands together across from Jessi, as if wanting to hug his sister but unwilling to make such a gesture.

“What happened?” Jessi asked. “Why didn’t you tell me you were going out?”

Ashley’s face grew troubled. “I … it was just to meet a friend.”

“Jessi Campbell?” a nurse asked from the doorway. “If you have a moment?”

Jessi hesitated then left her cousins, assured Ashley was relatively okay and Brandon was with her. She joined the nurse in the hallway.

“I’m Laurie. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get a hold of you last night,” the nurse said with an expectant look.

“I work two jobs. I didn’t get your message until this morning,” Jessi said lamely. “She’s okay, right?”

“She is. We kept her overnight for observation. She’s got some blood loss, but not much.”

“Blood loss from what? What happened?” Jessi demanded.

“I was hoping you knew.”

“No, I have no idea. She went out to meet a friend and that’s all I know.”

“You seem awfully young to have two teenagers,” Laurie said.

“I’m their legal guardian. Their parents died a few years ago,” she explained. “Hence the two jobs.”

“We were ready to call social services this morning before you showed up,” Laurie admitted.

Jessi’s heart felt like it stopped. “No need,” she whispered. “I’m here. They’re fine. We even have health insurance.”

Laurie assessed her for another minute. Jessi wanted to scream. She was barely ten years older than Brandon, which her parents pointed out every time she had a bad day managing the two teens. If it was up to them, the kids would be in a foster home, a fate Jessi found unconscionable. They were family. Her parents never appreciated what that meant, but she did.

“It looks like she was bit by a dog. Multiple times,” Laurie said at last. “Or maybe some sort of animal. We can’t quite figure out what. The punctures are deeper than a typical dog’s.”

“Bit by an animal.” Jessi wasn’t expecting that. “I mean, she likes animals. Maybe she tried to rescue one. There’s no chance of rabies, is there?”

“We’re treating her for rabies, just in case.”

Jessi grimaced, aware that such treatment involved multiple shots.

“We almost thought we might have a feral cat attack,” Laurie continued slowly. “Not a housecat” she said at Jessi’s blank look “more like a bobcat. This is the fourth event in the past few days. We’ve alerted the city. It’s not
completely
unheard of.”

“Wouldn’t a rabid bobcat be noticed this close to LA?” Jessi asked.

“It’s better than what the kids getting attacked are telling us.”

“Which is …”

“The latest in vampire-mania. There’s an active cult in the area. They go around biting people or something bizarre.”

“You think a vampire did this?” One side of Jessi’s lips curled up.

“I don’t. If you ask her, she might say differently.” Laurie looked towards the bed. “If Ashley wasn’t the fourth person to say so, I’d probably refer her to psych for an evaluation. I think she might be involved in some sort of gang or something.”

Jessi didn’t say what she wanted, that prissy Ashley wasn’t the type to roam the streets with thugs.

“I’ll look into that,” she said. “When can she leave?”

“Now, if she feels up to it. Her prescriptions are ready. She’ll need to see a doctor in a couple of days for follow up shots, and you need to watch the bite wounds for signs of an infection.”

“I can do that.”

“These kids believe anything they see on television. Just once, I’d like one of these so-called TV vampires to come out and tell people it’s all fake,” Laurie said. She scribbled notes on the file in her hands. “First
Twilight
, then that TV guy, X.”

“I don’t watch much television,” Jessi said, anxious to get back to her cousin.

“Two jobs,” Laurie repeated. “Maybe you should set up the parental controls on the TV so they can’t watch that garbage, if they have no adult supervision.”

Jessi gritted her teeth and forced a smile. The cousins were good kids. Whatever happened, it wasn’t because of a gang, and they were smart enough to know the difference between reality and what they saw on TV.